Jedi Endgame
by Onimiman
Summary: What I hope will serve as my finale to what I shall deem "The Return of Plagueis" quadrilogy. The stage is now set for the fate of the galaxy, with Darth Plagueis intending to further his plans for control of all reality, and only the Jedi, combined with their Yuuzhan Vong allies, can hope to stop him.
1. Chapter 1

To say that the general populations of the galaxy's civilian denizens reacted to the destruction of Coruscant with shock and horror would be an understatement.

Within the first two weeks of the planet's loss, riots erupted throughout all the major sectors on well-known Inner Rim planets like Commenor, Chandrila, Corulag, etc. The established Hapan and Imperial presences on these worlds did their best to quell the resultant chaos, even in spite of the fact that their presences only added to the anarchy; it was quite clear what the people thought of the death of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances.

The Outer Rim worlds were worse. With less concentrated efforts from the Consortium and Remnant forces at the planets and systems there, it came to no surprise that the likes of Bespin, Dac, Clak'dor, and Caluula fell into such turmoil that it was projected by Hapan and Imperial statisticians and analysts wouldn't properly rebuild their local civilizations for another decade or so, on average. And that was assuming that the leadership of Queen Mother Allana Djo Solo and Head of State Vitor Reige could reestablish peace and order in the Inner Rim by the end of the half-year.

As for what little remained of the Galactic Alliance, the government was no little more than a scattered organization - organization being a loose term here - spread throughout as many hidden locations in the galaxy as they could. Informally, however, they were now being led by former Confederation General Wedge Antilles, who didn't take it well when Prime Minister Genna Delpin - without the support of Denjax Teppler, of course - announced that the government was backing out of the war against the Hapans and Imperials. So it came to no surprise when he, with his loyal crew aboard the Star Destroyer _Harrier_, decided to go rogue and lend their support to the New Rebellion, as the Galactic Alliance now called itself, under the unofficial leadership of Captain Mirax Terrik Horn of the Star Destroyer _Errant Venture_.

Reading all of this from his datapad in the comfort of his suite in the Hapan Fountain Palace, Darth Plagueis couldn't help but grin maliciously. With the galaxy so embroiled in chaos now, it would be easier for his Yuuzhan Vong from the reality that Djo Solo sent him to to infiltrate the now-flailing infrastructures of the Hapes Consortium and the Imperial Remnant. He wondered if anyone would even notice if there was disguised Vong among their number working to crumble what civilization there was left; he figured that by the end of what he proclaimed to be the Quiet Yuuzhan Vong Invasion, it would be too late for anyone to stop him or his loyal technophobe followers.

And as for Djo Solo herself, Plagueis knew that she was too busy managing all the chaos occurring that there was nothing she could do to try to free her mother's spirit from his grasp, even if she was physically able to.

Oh, it was all going so smoothly, Plagueis thought. He bet that not even his treacherous apprentice Palpatine had it this easy when he was manipulating the Old Republic throughout the course of the Clone Wars to bring about the downfall of that government and of the Old Jedi Order. After all, Plagueis didn't even need to hide in plain sight; here he was, living as an indefinite guest under the reluctant grace of the Hapan Queen Mother, his intentions all but clear to her that he intended to take over all of reality. Granted, of course, only he knew that his Yuuzhan Vong were infiltrating the galaxy now, but even if Djo Solo found out about that, he knew she could do nothing against him or his plans lest she wish to see her mother's ghost suffer more under his power.

He frowned as one thought came to him; the one chink in his plans concerning the Quiet Yuuzhan Vong Invasion; the rebellion led by their former Supreme Overlord.

Onimi.

No matter with him, Plagueis waved off. His meager rebellion will be crushed along with that disgusting Shamed One, along with that ever-treacherous Nom Anor. Yet, even with Onimi's power and Nom Anor's influence - still under his guise as Yu'shaa the Prophet - there was still one person that Plagueis feared most: Jacen Solo, the one who ultimately sided with Onimi and Nom Anor back in the reality where Plagueis took over the Vong. And aided by that enigmatic Fosh, Vergere, there was no telling how powerful that Solo would be against him.

Even with his immortality dispensing with his need to breathe, Plagueis still allowed a sigh of relief to escape him when the thought came to him that Solo, aided by Vergere and their Vong rebellion, were all that he needed to worry about. And since they were so few to worry about anyway - at least for now - Plagueis figured that his plans would go swimmingly after all.

It wasn't as if that Jaden Korr could hope to revive the Jedi Order.

.

"It's only a matter of time now, Master Korr," Sekotan Magister Danni Quee said, standing next to the aforementioned Grand Master as they watched their Jedi apprentices spar each other in La'okio's established training courtyard. "I know your apprentices will be ready, and this time, they will defeat Darth Plagueis once and for all, and set true Balance to the Force."

"I truly hope so," Jaden said as he looked at Danni. "The last time the Jedi confronted Plagueis, it ended disastrously. I'm lucky I was the only one to make it out alive; and even then, with no disrespect intended to Allana Solo, I was saved by a little ten-year-old girl."

"One who had become one with the Force for a while," Danni countered diplomatically. "Just as her father once had."

Jaden grimaced. "I hope she doesn't fall to the idea of the Unifying Force like her father did. That was what destroyed him, and with his daughter ruling the Consortium..."

Danni silenced him with a wave. "She won't falter like her father. I've foreseen it."

"Then can you see whether or not we can win against Plagueis?" Jaden asked.

Danni sighed. "The Force is silent to me on that, Master Korr."

"Me, too," Jaden replied soberly.


	2. Chapter 2

On Mandalore, a _Carrack_-class cruiser landed in Keldabe's spaceport, a lone New Rebellion vessel among hundreds of Mandalorian spaceships. It wasn't long after the Alliance cruiser cycled down and unfurled its boarding ramp.

Stepping off the _Carrack_ was General Wedge Antilles and an entourage of half a dozen Rebellion soldiers. After they debarked, the ramp furled back up against the ship behind them as the Rebellion party walked briskly, in typical military fashion, for the spaceport's exit.

A few minutes later, they were out of the port and were heading for the waiting Mandalorians several meters ahead of them. Wedge and his soldiers stopped just one meter from the Mando party of seven - about equal to that of the Rebellion reps here - and the leaders of the respective groups then stood half a meter from each other to address the other.

"General Antilles," Boba Fett said evenly as he shook the unarmored human's hand.

"Mandalore Fett," Wedge replied in the same tone before they unclasped their hands. "It's good to see that your people were able to concoct an antidote to that nanovirus that was surrounding your planet's atmosphere three months ago."

"Since when were you so concerned about the well-being of your former enemies, General?" Fett remarked.

"Since you and the nation of Mandalore agreed to accept Captain Terrik's terms of allying with us against the Consortium and Remnant," Wedge replied, his tone still diplomatic.

"You may dispense with the pleasantries, General," Fett said. "I'm here to put you back on schedule."

Wedge raised an eyebrow. "Back on schedule for what?"

"Your war against the Consortium and the Remnant, of course," Fett clarified. "You're gonna need all the help you can get."

"Yes, we do," Wedge admitted without a hint of reluctance. "May I ask, though, why you're so willing to help us in this war, given your past connections to the Empire, Mandalore? You failed to mention that to Captain Terrik when she contacted you for help."

"You don't think credits are enough of a reason for bounty hunters like us to take a job in overthrowing a couple or so governments?" Fett retorted. "It was enough for us in the last war, and it seemed to satisfy Captain Terrik."

"With you, it's always more than about credits, and you know that part your involvement in the Second Galactic Civil War is, how you put it, _osik_, Fett," Wedge challenged. "Breaking out Daala from a Galactic Alliance prison a year and a half ago certainly proved that."

Even with his signature dented helmet on, Wedge knew that the old bounty hunter was smirking. It was no secret that Fett sided with the Jedi Coalition in the Second Galactic Civil War because its leader, Jacen Solo, a.k.a. Darth Caedus, had killed his daughter, Ailyn Vel.

"Very good, General," Fett said. "But I'm more than sure that a man as tactically brilliant as you is smart enough to determine why I'd turn all of my people against the Hapans and Imperials."

"Still sore over the Imperials poisoning your atmosphere for you?" Wedge inquired.

"And over the Hapans for not executing them when the Imps decided to target their Queen Mother then," Fett concluded. "Well, it seems we might come to more of an agreement between our societies than I first thought, General."

"Oh, really? How so?" Wedge asked.

"You're right to question my motives in aiding a government that's pretty much dead," Fett said. "I admire that in someone like you, Antilles."

Wedge nodded. "Shall we continue our business elsewhere now, Mandalore?"

"Ah, yes, our formal meeting, where we'll seal the deal," Fett said. "If you would follow us, General." He and his party then turned away for Wedge and his company to follow.

.

In an undisclosed warehouse in another reality, dimension travelers Jacen Solo and Onimi were sitting on a roughened couch playing a video game called _Call of Duty: Modern Warfare_ on a gaming system called XBOX. The two of them were wordlessly yelling and screaming, their attention glued to the old-fashioned television screen across from them, as they did their best in trying to kill each other online.

But just before either of them could claim victory, the television suddenly shut off.

Jacen and Onimi stared dumbfounded at the blank screen before looking above it to find an angry-looking Cilghal glaring back at them. In her right hand was the cord that connected the television to the nearby outlet.

After dropping the cord to the ground, she sternly asked, "Do either off you idiots know when the last time was when you had a mission?"

Jacen abruptly looked away from the Mon Calamari technowitch and stuttered as he tried to reply to her query. "Well, uh..."

"Bitch, are you on your fish period this month?!" Onimi exclaimed in shock, interrupting his best friend. "I was totally gonna pown Jacen at _Modern Warfare_!"

"Nuh-uh, I was gonna be the one to pown you, you ugly fuck," Jacen responded, forgetting about Cilghal for the moment.

"Enough, morons!" Cilghal exclaimed, earning back the attention of her charges. "The last time either of you had a mission was about a month ago!"

"Yeah, so?" Onimi asked.

"You usually get about two or three missions _a week_!" Cilghal pointed out. "And I was wondering if either of you, or Nom Anor for that matter, would get on it. But as I can clearly see, you're both too busy killing each other in _Call of Duty_ than in trying to earn us any money to keep this operation stable!"

"So why don't you earn any money then?" Onimi asked. "You can basically make a proton bomb out of a few protocol droid scraps. You know how much money you can earn for all of us?"

Cilghal growled. "That's not the point. You two, and Nom Anor, have to get your useless asses back out into the rest of the Multiverse and find out what the hell happened to Waru."

"Wait, if we're useless, why are you asking us..." Jacen started to ask.

"GET OFF THAT FUCKING COUCH, THE BOTH OF YOU!" Cilghal yelled.

That startled Jacen and Onimi off the sofa and they scrambled for their Imperial shuttle.

"And make sure Nom Anor sobers up from his marijuana before you jump from this reality!" Cilghal called as the "idiots" left.


	3. Chapter 3

Roughly ten to nine o'clock at night, the door to the Queen Mother's throne room in the Fountain Palace opened from the outside, and Her Majesty's personal chamberlain, Poik, stepped inside with Dr. Quyi Cavaz.

"Milady, may Doctor Cavaz and I have a word with you?" Poik asked Allana, now seated on her throne.

"Step inside and shut the door, Poik, and yes, you and Doctor Cavaz may speak to me," Allana replied curtly.

After the chamberlain fulfilled her queen's first two orders, she and Cavaz stepped toward the throne and knelt in obeisance.

"Milady, while Doctor Cavaz and I are both aware that there is still much work to be done, what with wiping out this New Rebellion and controlling the chaos plaguing all of the Consortium's newly-occupied worlds and systems," Poik began, "we were wondering what you intend to do with Darth Plagueis."

Allana breathed an annoyed sigh before directing her gaze for Cavaz. "This again, Doctor?"

"Your Majesty," Cavaz began, "I understand that you don't wish to see the spirit of your mother suffer before Plagueis's hands, but-"

"But nothing, Doctor Cavaz," Allana said. "You have no more right to question my authority in this matter, here and now, than you did when Plagueis reentered this reality."

"Pardon my frankness, Your Highness," Cavaz said respectfully, "but surely, you're not just going to allow Plagueis to fulfill his dreams of 'taking over all of reality.'"

Allana remained stern-faced and silent rather than respond to the physicist.

"Are you done here, Doctor?" the Queen Mother asked after a tense moment passed between her and the scientist.

Her face dropping his disappointment, she nodded like a beaten akk dog. "Yes, Your Majesty."

"Then you're dismissed, the both of you," Allana said without preamble.

After they left the throne room, Cavaz and Poik traveled a great distance down the hall before meeting in the former's private quarters. A little while after they checked the room for secretly-placed recording devices - during which Cavaz found the only one and promptly shut it off - the two of them set themselves in the middle of the living room to speak.

"We are _not_ going to commit high treason now, Doctor," Poik said.

"Oh, I agree with that," the doctor replied wryly. "We need to gather up our resources if we are to overthrow her."

Poik shook her head. "This is too risky!"

"I was once part of a project involving charged particles smashing into each other, which, through complex science and mathematics, determined a high chance that they could cause a super-massive black hole that could potentially destroy the entire universe," Cavaz replied. "And yet I still got involved. I'm more than aware that this is risky, because we could potentially be committing regicide if we have to, and to a child, no less."

"Yes, well, even if I agree to your plan of assassinating the Queen Mother, Doctor," Poik said, "we still have no way to contend with Plagueis. He is the reason we're even talking about wiping out the royal bloodline in the first place!"

"You let me worry about, Plagueis," Cavaz said.

"Oh, yes, I'm so sure that you can take on an immortal Sith Lord who's known to have slaughtered pretty much the entire Jedi Order single-handed-"

"You know I'm not as stupid as to think I could match him in fisticuffs, Poik," Cavaz interrupted. "I'm talking about sending him back to that reality and making sure he stays there before we destroy that machine for good."

"And how do you intend to pull that off, huh?" Poik asked. "You think you can just somehow gather a bunch of guards to your side, even assuming that we can cover up the fact that we'd be responsible for the Queen Mother's death, and just arrest Plagueis? He'll butcher them all with his lightsaber at a leisure pace before coming after you without breaking a single sweat the whole way through."

"That's why we'll be planning this right now," Cavaz pointed out.

Poik growled. "No, we won't."

"Look, we tried it your way, we attempted to reason with the Queen Mother, and it didn't work, Poik," Cavaz said as she waved her arm to the exit of her cabin. "Now we have to settle with my plan."

"I am not going to be part of this," Poik argued.

"So what are you going to do then?" Cavaz asked. "Rat me out to Her Majesty and simply allow Plagueis to go about with his own plans?"

"We don't have any other choice, Doctor!" Poik argued.

Cavaz snorted. "I can't believe you allow yourself to just lay down and die like this."

"We all have to die one day, Doctor," Poik replied soberly.

Cavaz smirked humorlessly. "Except for Darth Plagueis, it seems."

Poik sighed in exasperation. "Alright, listen, just give me time to think this through, okay? That's what we really have to do in this situation right now, is think."

Cavaz nodded neutrally. "Fair enough."

Poik returned the nod curtly. "I'll see you tomorrow in the Palace's cafeteria for lunch. We'll discuss more about this then."

"Have a good night then," Cavaz said.

Poik offered a sad smile in return. "You, too." She then turned around and headed out the door.

Cavaz then sat down in her sofa and nursed the throbbing headache that now invaded her temples.

_At least only Poik and I know about this now_, she thought.

Unbeknownst to her, however, when she had turned off the one bug that either she or Poik found in this cabin, the mechanism that shut down the recording had simultaneously unleashed microscopic spores that served the same function as the actual recording device itself. Hence, the invisible spores managed to catch the entirety of the conspiratorial conversation between Dr. Quyi Cavaz and the Queen Mother's chamberlain.

Receiving the unified signal that the spores were transmitting from the other end, the ooglith-masqued Yuuzhan Vong agent sat in his own private cabin - having replaced one of the Queen Mother's impersonal Palace guards - maliciously smiling over the news he had just received. He figured that he should thank the Shapers for this new, villip-related biological invention.

_Darth Plagueis will love this_, he thought gleefully.


	4. Chapter 4

With his Vongsense, Plagueis, sitting on the comfortable couch in his cabin in the Fountain Palace, sensed the presence of his disguised agent, Phaa Anor, approaching the door to his quarters. Using the Force, the Sith Lord promptly opened the door and allowed the agent to enter, closing it behind him after Phaa Anor was in the living room.

"I hope you managed to muddle the sensors and vidcams indicating your approach, Phaa Anor," Plagueis said. "While the Queen Mother can't do anything against me, there's much she can do against you without my knowledge."

"Do not worry, Lord Plagueis," Phaa Anor replied in obeisance. "I took special precautions with the virulent agents provided by the shapers. No one will know that I entered here, and no one will know that I will exit."

Plagueis nodded. "Very good. So what news do you have to report to me?"

Phaa Anor then took out an organic recording device, laid it on the tabletop that served as the caf table for his Master, and pressed a finger into a depression that soon emitted the voices of the Queen Mother's chamberlain, Poik, and Dr. Quyi Cavaz.

When the recording finished and Phaa Anor took the device back to replace it in his pocket, Plagueis looked back at him with an expressionless gaze and said, "We won't get in their way."

"My Lord?" Phaa Anor asked.

"As much as I love the idea of using the Queen Mother to my advantage," Plagueis elaborated, "it would be nice to not have to deal with her in the future."

"But they intend to rebel against you!" Phaa Anor pointed out with worry.

"I could use the challenge," Plagueis replied wryly. "With the Jedi gone, I look forward to whatever actions Doctor Cavaz and that meager chamberlain wish to throw at me."

"Pardon my saying so, Lord Plagueis," Phaa Anor excused himself, "but what if they do concoct a solid idea to overthrow you? You would be risking a lot."

"Which is why you're going to only be monitoring them, and reporting to me about the development of their plans to overthrow Djo Solo and I, and if they do turn out to be a real threat after all," Plagueis said, "I'll be the one to handle them before they get out of control."

With a reluctant expression, Phaa Anor nodded and said, "I understand, My Lord."

"Is there anything else?" Plagueis asked.

Phaa Anor shook his head. "No, Lord Plagueis."

"Then you're dismissed."

Phaa Anor nodded, turned, and left the cabin.

Afterward, Plagueis picked up the datapad that he set down when he sensed Phaa Anor approaching his quarters and activated it again. He then looked over the reports of the various other Yuuzhan Vong spies stationed throughout the galaxy, particularly in the areas occupied by the Hapes Consortium and the Imperial Remnant. So far, there was not even a tingle of suspicion from any of the native denizens of the galaxy regarding the possibility of a renewed Vong invasion, and even the relic Yuuzhan Vong Hunter droids' sensors were unable to penetrate the protection offered by the spies' improved ooglith masquers. Elsewhere, within the vast confines of Confederation space, progress was already underway in infiltrating the governments of Corellia, Bothawui, and all the other worlds and systems that sided against the Galactic Alliance during the Second Galactic Civil War.

However, it turned out to be surprisingly difficult to infiltrate the ranks of the New Rebellion, especially since they were now so spread out through the galaxy, making it too risky for the Yuuzhan Vong of the next reality to properly ingratiate themselves into the echelons of their meager military and government.

No matter with that, Plagueis thought as he deactivated the 'pad and set it back down on the caf table, and placed his feet back upon the tabletop in relaxation. After the real threat to his goals - the governments of the Consortium, and the Remnant, the potential threat offered by that rebellion from the other reality, and even the Confederation in due time - were crushed, he could go about wiping out the New Rebellion and every other relatively minor political power in the galaxy with relative ease.

And with no one guarding the vast room in the Fountain Palace's basement that contained the RTD - Reality Travel Device, as Plagueis took to calling it - or having vidcams installed there to monitor the RTD - since Plagueis threatened Djo Solo not to for the safety of her mother's spirit - it was oh so easy to reach out with the Force, activate the RTD, and allow ooglith masquered-Yuuzhan Vong agents to come through by the half-dozen. Even so, Plagueis sends someone like Phaa Anor down to sweep the room for bugs implanted by any of the Queen Mother's enemies just to make sure that no one was the wiser about the Quiet Yuuzhan Vong Invasion. And from there, no one in the Palace questioned the appearance of his spies - not even the likes of the conspiratorial Poik and Dr. Cavaz - as they left to travel out into the rest of the galaxy.

If it had been this simple back in his first life, when he'd been manipulating key political players to set up the fall of the Old Republic and the Old Jedi Order...

.

Team Jacen's Imperial shuttle appeared from out of the tunnel of Cross-Reality - the equivalent of hyperspace when traveling between realities - and dropped out into some kind of area of a brown, fluid-like substance obscuring all vision through the viewports and the shuttle's sensors.

"So this is Waru's reality, huh?" Onimi commented from the copilot seat.

"I'm not the only one seeing this, right?" Nom Anor, still stoned from marijuana, asked from the navigator's chair.

"No, no, this is what you're really seeing, Nommy," Jacen said from the pilot seat, not turning away to look at his non-deformed friend. "Now all we have to do is find Waru and see what's going on."

Just as the words left Jacen's mouth, the honeycomb-like form of Waru appeared through the forward viewport of the shuttle, surprising all three of its occupants.

"I made a horrible mistake," Waru said with obvious worry, his booming voice projecting through the frame of the shuttle. "While I knew that the resurrected Darth Plagueis could be stopped by Allana Djo Solo, I did not take into account that he could return. And now I have potentially doomed all of reality."

"So why didn't you just send us back to deal with him?" Jacen asked, not bothering to use the ship's comm system.

"Because he is too powerful now, even for you to hope to survive," Waru said. "And if I kill one endowed with immortality from the Force itself, I could potentially set off a chain of events that would lead to the destruction of all reality."

Now all three members of Team Jacen looked really worried.

"So there's no way Plagueis can be stopped?" Nom Anor asked.

"There is none at all, not without destroying all of reality itself," Waru replied with a somber tone. "All we can do now is allow him to take it over; life enslaved is better than no life at all."

Silence permeated the area between the interior of the shuttle and the area of the reality that Waru now occupied for quite a while.

"Well, we're going to try, at least, even if it kills us," Jacen said with a sure tone.

"What?!" Onimi and Nom Anor asked simultaneously with equal amounts of shock.

"Hey, I'd rather we die, knowing we tried, than sit back and let Plagueis have his way unchallenged," Jacen said with more determination, looking at each Yuuzhan Vong in turn. He then looked back at Waru.

"You'll be wasting your time, and your lives," Waru warned.

"It's our time and lives to waste, Waru," Jacen said. He looked back at his alien friends. "Ain't that right, guys?"

The two Yuuzhan Vong were unsure for a moment, but both resigned to simple shrugs and nodded, though with tinges of reluctance.

Jacen nodded back, a genuine look of determination on his face, and looked back at Waru.

"Wish us luck," Jacen said hopefully.

"Good luck," Waru offered.

And with that, the shuttle disappeared back into the tunnel of Cross-Reality.


	5. Chapter 5

His duties as co-Prime Minister of the Five Worlds of Corellia done for the day, Denjax Teppler entered his apartment, double-checked to make sure that the locks were secured, sat down on his sofa, triple-checked that his commlink would transmit over a secure line that no Confederation spy was aware of - at least, he hoped none of them knew - and he activated the link.

The blue holographic face that was transmitted from somewhere else in the galaxy displayed the deformed visage of Mandalorian Belok Rhal. "I hope you made sure we're talking on a secure line, Prime Minister Teppler."

"Oh, you can be assured, Mister Rhal, that we're secured," Teppler replied.

"Good then," Rhal stated. "So let's get down to business. When and where?"

"Tomorrow at noon, when my fellow Prime Minister will be having her lunch, and I would just so happen to be going to the refresher at that time," Teppler said. "From there, you and I would just have to worry about whether or not I can pull off a decent performance in convincing the public that I had nothing to do with Genna Delpin's death."

"You ever do any acting previously, Prime Minister?" Rhal asked wryly.

"I did some drama back in high school," Teppler answered in an equally dry tone. "I got some pretty good marks, and my teacher thought I was good enough."

"I hope your teacher wasn't just being nice about your acting abilities, Teppler," Rhal remarked. "Anyway, about my payment."

Teppler nodded. "It'll be wired to your private account through untraceable means that you don't have to concern yourself with. You'll get your money twenty-four hours after Delpin's assassination."

"I'd better," Rhal said. "So we done here?"

"You got any other questions?" Teppler asked. "You know, aside from why I want Delpin out of the picture?"

"Why can't I know that?" Rhal inquired.

"Do you want to know that?"

"Fair enough. But if I did wanna know, could I?"

Teppler shook his head. "In the off-chance this somehow leaks, I need plausible deniability; that way, no one can determine a motive for me wanting my fellow Prime Minister dead."

"Other than the possibility that you decided you wanted all the power to yourself, Teppler?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny that, Mister Rhal," Teppler answered evenly.

"Hmm," Rhal replied. "Or maybe it's because you want to get back at Delpin for having the Confederation turn back on the Galactic Alliance before Coruscant's destruction?"

"Do you want half your pay gone, Mister Rhal?" Teppler intoned.

"Do you not want Delpin dead, Prime Minister Teppler?" Rhal retorted.

Teppler suppressed a sigh of frustration. He figured that it'd be hard to deal with this particular Mandalorian, considering that this was the very same mercenary who didn't think twice about gunning down what appeared to be a teenaged Jedi apprentice during Daala's reign of the GA. But now, with Confederation spies confirming that the Mandalorian nation as a whole had allied with the New Rebellion against the Hapes Consortium and Imperial Remnant, and with Rhal not in good graces with Boba Fett, this Mando was pretty much Teppler's only hope in "taking care of" Delpin at this point.

One would think that Teppler was extremely ungrateful toward Delpin, given that she actually invited him back into ruling the Five Worlds alongside her after he threatened her at blasterpoint. He didn't know what was going on in her head at the time; perhaps she thought she could get Teppler to reason in time and make him cooperative with her again. In either case, he had no intention of doing so, and he thanked Delpin's naivete, at least, for allowing him into the position of hiring an assassin like Rhal to get rid of his fellow Prime Minister.

"Would it dissuade you from killing Delpin if I didn't tell you why I wanted her dead?" Teppler asked as politely as he could.

Rhal shrugged nonchalantly. "Not really. I was just curious."

Teppler suppressed a growl. "Are we done here now?"

"I think we are," Rhal answered evenly.

"Then have a good day, Mister Rhal," Teppler said before he promptly cut off communication.

In his mind, Teppler had just told Rhal to go kriff himself.

.

When Team Jacen's Imperial shuttle dropped out of Cross-Reality, they looked out through the viewport of their ship in confusion at the star-studded blackness of space before them.

"Where the hell are we?" Onimi asked from the copilot seat. "This isn't where Plagueis is."

Jacen, in the pilot seat, looked at the vessel's sensors. Wordlessly, he looked away from the sensors and piloted the ship so that it faced the other way. When he stopped, they found themselves facing the lush green world of Zonama Sekot.

Just as that happened, their ship's comm console beeped, and Jacen answered it to find the blue-hued holographic visage of Magister Danni Quee staring back at him, Onimi, and Nom Anor in the nav chair.

"Hello, Jacen," Danni said. "We could use the help of you and Onimi."

"What about me?" Nom Anor asked in his marijuana-slurred tone.

Danni ignored him. "If you would be so kind as to come down near La'okio, we will brief you in your role of defeating Darth Plagueis. The coordinates for the village will be given to you soon. Until we see each other, have a safe trip down." Then the communication was cut off from the other end.

A few seconds later, the console beeped again with coordinates determining the location of La'okio, just as Danni promised. Looking at the numbers displayed, Jacen then began piloting the ship for the living planet up ahead.

"Well, I guess trying to defeat Plagueis won't be as helpless as Waru thought," Jacen remarked just as they began entering the atmosphere.

"Then let us hope that Waru is wrong after all," Onimi followed up soberly.

Bare minutes later, Jacen set down the ship a few klicks from the designated coordinates. Following the shutdown of the engines and the lowering of the boarding ramp, Team Jacen was met by the form of Danni Quee, though whether it was the real Danni or an astral projection by Sekot was unknown to either Jacen or Onimi, never mind the stoned Nom Anor.

Wordlessly, Danni turned and headed for La'okio, with the three men following along just as the boarding ramp closed and locked up behind them.


	6. Chapter 6

While he and the rest of the apprentices, who had yet to begin their training for the day, were expecting the alternate versions of Jacen Solo, Onimi, and Nom Anor to show up, Jaden was still inwardly fuming at this. Just thinking about the prospect of seeing any form of not only the two Yuuzhan Vong most responsible for the war against them - it had become rather common knowledge within the Jedi Order following the Yuuzhan Vong War regarding Onimi being the true Supreme Overlord - but also thinking about seeing any version of Jacen Solo put Jaden on edge. If it weren't for his self-control in the Force, he'd no doubt be pouring out his feelings to the apprentices around him, and Peb Liko would at best rib him for his bare minimum of control and at worst reprimand the Grand Master for it.

And any apprentice would be right for calling Jaden out on that one.

"I cannot wait to see the one who had saved us all!" one of the Extolled apprentices, Kunra, exclaimed from the back of the group of Jedi. "I will finally meet Jacen Solo face-to-face!"

"Calm yourself, Apprentice Kunra," Jaden called from the front of the crowd. "It does not bode well for any Jedi to lose self-control." At least Jaden wouldn't call himself a hypocrite for saying that, he thought.

Immediately, Kunra's raggedy face dropped in obeisance, and he bowed his head subserviently. "Forgive me, Grand Master Korr," he said in a wounded tone.

Without responding, Jaden turned back to the exit of the training ground, and a few seconds later, Magister Quee entered with Solo, Onimi, and their Nom Anor in tow.

After introductions were made all around, the extradimensional trio stopped at the head of the crowd, facing the Jedi before them, with Quee in front of Jacen and his Yuuzhan Vong friends.

"Now," Quee said, "let's begin the training for today."

.

With practiced poise, Poik, holding a tray of exquisite food from the Fountain Palace diner, sat down in her selected seat in the Palace's cafeteria to regard Dr. Cavaz. The chamberlain took a few looks, left and right, each to see if anyone was paying special attention to her and the scientist before settling her gaze back upon her counterpart.

"So," Poik said in a low inconspicuous tone as she lowered her tray onto the table before her, "I take it you managed to come up with a plan to get rid of Plagueis."

Cavaz nodded her head as she continued to chew on the food she already had in her mouth. After she swallowed the mush there, she leaned in and whispered, "I have, but I just realized that it's going to take a lot longer than we previously thought."

"How long?" Poik asked.

Cavaz grimaced before she answered. "About six months, give or take."

Naturally, Poik's eyes flew wide open, and she had to control herself to make sure that her voice wouldn't erupt into a yell. "Why is it going to take that long?"

"Well, that's the minimum amount of time I'll need to construct a miniature version of the RTD," Cavaz explained.

"RTD?" Poik asked.

"Reality Travel Device," Cavaz clarified with mild annoyance. "It's the machine that brought Plagueis here in the first place, in case you haven't caught on."

Poik stifled her annoyance with the scientist's slight insolence. "How is this going to defeat Plagueis?"

"Making it into a handheld device, like a remote control," Cavaz elaborated, "I can create tunnels into other realities with a push of a button, and then bye-bye Plagueis."

"Well, then, you'd better get to work on that miniature RTD as soon as possible, Doctor, understand?" At the physicist's nod, Poik added, "And we don't carry out any assassination plans against the Queen Mother until then."

"We still need to think of some way in advance, though," Cavaz pointed out. "After all, sending Plagueis back where he came from is all well and good, but as long as he can still manipulate the Queen Mother, she's still too much of a threat not to consider."

Poik sighed in sadness. "I know."

"So do you have any ideas?" Cavaz asked.

"I was going to ask you the same thing," Poik stated evenly.

Cavaz suppressed a growl of frustration. "Hey, I was busy last night formulating the plan to get rid of Plagueis. I was kind of relying on you on how to take out the ten-year-old matriarch of this Consortium."

"Well, pardon my continued loyalty to the monarchy, Doctor," Poik countered. "It's not in my nature to think things like this."

"If that's the case, why do I need you again?" Cavaz asked.

Poik's lips firmed into anger. "Because I can get close to the Queen Mother in a way that many others, such as yourself, Doctor, can't. Even with all your technical intelligence, I'm still the one with a better chance to assassinate Her Majesty than you do."

Cavaz raised her arms up in mock-defense. "Fine. Fine." She then placed her hands back on the tabletop meaningfully, her eyes boring into Poik's. "But you'd better come up with a solid plan with eliminating Her Highness soon, even if we can't use it for another good half-year or so."

"I'll do my best," Poik said before she began digging into her meal and Cavaz returned to hers.

A little while later, Poik, after swallowing some of her food, abruptly sneezed into her the crook of her arm. "Excuse me," she said to Cavaz just as the latter also sneezed against her own arm.

When the physicist looked back at the chamberlain, the latter regarded the former with an uneasy look.

"What, you think we're sick or something, just because we both sneezed at the same time?" Cavaz asked.

Then they sneezed simultaneously again.

"Okay, just one more sneeze, then we'll wor-" She was cut off by yet another synchronized sneeze with Poik.

"Alright, let's visit a medbay," Poik said as she and Cavaz got up to abandon their half-eaten meals.


	7. Chapter 7

Phaa Anor didn't have to be a shaper to put two and two together in regard to the correlation of losing several of the spy spores and the sneezes that Dr. Cavaz and Poik were just enduring; those two had accidentally inhaled those lost spores, and after they headed over to the Fountain Palace's medical facility, it would only be a matter of time before the doctor there would figure out what was causing their sneezes.

And then his entire cover would be blown, and Lord Plagueis's plan of taking over this galaxy, in his continuation of taking over all of reality, would be jeopardized.

Quickly standing up from his post inside his private cabin in the Palace, he rushed for the door leading out and began hurrying down the Palace's corridors in a pace that wouldn't attract any suspicion. It wasn't long, however, before Phaa Anor eventually ran into Darth Plagueis at a corridor intersection.

"What is it?" Plagueis asked with worry. No one else was in the corridor at this time, and doubtless the Sith Lord was smart enough to use some kind of Force trick to mess with the recording vidcams mounted on the corners of this corridor, so no one would question what the Muun had up his sleeve.

"We must hurry for the medical center," Phaa Anor said in a rush, already having figured out that Plagueis had sensed his distress with his "Vongsense," as he called it. Like all the other Yuuzhan Vong that Plagueis led, Phaa Anor paid no mind to the fact that their master was unintentionally degrading them by only referring to them as Vong, and no one dared correct him out of fear of punishment for informing him that he looked like a fool.

After Phaa Anor gave Plagueis a brief report as to why he was heading for the med center, Plagueis, instead of leading the way, simply put a hand up to the disguised Yuuzhan Vong's chest, stopping him in his tracks, and he smiled maliciously. "Let them find out what they inhaled," Plagueis said.

"What?!" Phaa Anor asked in shock.

Plagueis regarded Phaa Anor coldly, coercing the Yuuzhan Vong to bow his head in obeisance and apology before the Sith elaborated. "Your cover will not be blown. But we will have to sacrifice one of our own. Tell me, Phaa Anor, are there any subordinates of yours that you think are in need of, how we shall say, letting go?"

Phaa Anor raised an eyebrow in confusion. "As a matter of fact, there is one, Lord Plagueis. One by the name of Qau Lah. He has been quite useless to me and has been given me a stunning lack of reports."

"Then he will be our scapegoat," Plagueis concluded.

"But will this not still interfere with our plans once word gets out that the Yuuzhan Vong are coming from another reality-"

"No one will think that," Plagueis interrupted. "The more logical conclusion that people will come to from this is that the Yuuzhan Vong of this reality are making a comeback, and planning for a new invasion."

Phaa Anor nodded in understanding. But then his brow creased in confusion. "Well, even if the galaxy at large is tricked by this subterfuge, they would be rightfully on the lookout of our own agents, and will surely uncover them."

"Again, that is why I believe it will be necessary to sacrifice a few of our lesser agents," Plagueis said. "From there, after the galaxy believes that they've eliminated all their Yuuzhan Vong spies, they will send out several key forces out into the Unknown Regions to find the living world of Zonama Sekot and destroy it, along with the last of this reality's Vong. Besides, I think we could eliminate another genuinely potential threat in Sekot anyway."

"That sounds like a good plan," Phaa Anor agreed, beginning to notice just how there was still no one out in this corridor yet. "Still, why not just eliminate Doctor Cavaz and Poik altogether, and not have to make any such sacrifices? After all, Qau Lah and our other less-than-useful spies could very well prove useful to us in the foreseeable future."

"It is possible," Plagueis stated with a shrug. "Anything is possible. But still, I believe that Doctor Cavaz and Poik will be useful to us in the long-run, especially in eliminating Djo Solo. Sure, I could do it, but even with my immortality ensuring that I do not expend any of my own physical resources, I still prefer having others do some work for me, especially if it's unwittingly. Speaking of which, do you have anything to report on Doctor Cavaz and Poik themselves, Phaa Anor?"

The Yuuzhan Vong nodded. "While Poik still has not come up with a plan to assassinate the Queen Mother, Doctor Cavaz has a way of potentially returning you back from the reality from whence you took over our empire."

"Oh?" Plagueis asked. "And what is that?"

"A handheld Reality Travel Device," Phaa Anor answered. "It will take her approximately half a year for her to complete, and she will not use it until after the Queen Mother is dead."

"That way, there'd be no one to stop Cavaz from destroying the Reality Travel Device that brought me back here, so she can use her handheld one to send me back to your reality," Plagueis discerned.

"Do you think we should at least remove Cavaz as a threat and leave Poik alive to come up with a plan to assassinate Djo Solo?" Phaa Anor asked.

Plagueis shook his head. "If Cavaz is eliminated, Poik isn't stupid enough to just go ahead with ending the bloodline of the Hapan monarchy without some kind of plan of at least sending me back to your reality, Phaa Anor. She'll no doubt find some other scientist to pick up where Cavaz would leave off in the event of her death. No, keep Cavaz alive, and I'll deal with her as soon as Djo Solo dies." The Sith then smiled. "But you know, even if Cavaz is successful in sending me back to your reality, Phaa Anor, it won't matter, because by then, my Yuuzhan Vong empire would no doubt have conquered this galaxy, and you could just coerce Cavaz or, if not her, then any other scientist in the galaxy to just rebuild another RTD to send me back here and the rest of my empire. So, either way, no one can stop us."

Phaa Anor nodded in agreement. Then he looked around again to find that there were still no people in this hallway, and Plagueis smiled again. "Don't worry; just as I was using my abilities to make sure that none of the vidcams in this corridor will catch us speaking, I've also managed to send our a powerful suggestion to all the minds in the Palace, excluding the Queen Mother, who's too busy in her throne room anyway, to stay away from this corridor at all costs until our discussion has ended."

"Oh, good," Phaa Anor nodded again in understanding. "So, will that be all, Lord Plagueis?"

Plagueis returned the nod. "It is. Do have a good day, Phaa Anor." Then they both departed ways.


	8. Chapter 8

Qau Lah, undisguised in his ooglith masquer, had just finished taking a sanisteam in the refresher of his private cabin in the Fountain Palace and placed a towel around his lower torso when he heard the door to his quarters outside blow up. Reacting immediately, he ducked for the cabinet beneath the refresher's sink, opened it up, and took out the artificial holdout blaster he hid there. He gave it one disgusted look - for, like all other Yuuzhan Vong in Lord Plagueis's empire, he still felt like it was sacrilege to the now-irrelevant gods to be holding such an abomination - before Lah leaped for the door. He opened it up and slid off to the side to hide behind the wall there a sliver of a second before lethal red laser bolts whizzed by to strike the tiling of the shower at the other end, sending little chunks of porcelain spraying down just where Lah had been washing himself.

The Yuuzhan Vong spy then leaned back for the exit of the refresher and blindly fired off a few shots before hurriedly leaning back in. But instead of seeing any counteractive bolts flying past where he was just leaning from, he only heard them being fired off at a rapid pace, and it only took Lah a second to realize what was happening. A second later, he dropped to his buttocks, and two seconds later, the wall above him blew inward. He vainly covered his head with his hands before the debris bits passed over. However, before Lah could fire back, a bolt hit him dead in his left foot, and in spite of spending his whole life so far embracing pain as a way of life, he couldn't help but scream in pain and let the blaster drop from his hand.

A Hapan guard then rolled into the refresher, grabbing Lah's blaster along the way, and she came up in a crouch, whirling around to aim both guns at the Yuuzhan Vong. "Where are your other friends in this Palace, Vong?" the guard asked firmly.

Lah was prepared to break one of his upper teeth and bite down on the cyanide capsule so he wouldn't compromise any of his fellow spies or his superior in Phaa Anor. However, something in his mind compelled him to speak.

"I am the only Yuuzhan Vong spy in this Palace," he answered in a monotone that starkly contrasted with the searing pain in his scorched foot.

The guard, Fleim, would have never fallen for that, especially given that bolt in the Vong's foot; she would have interrogated this Vong past his love for pain until he cried like a little bitch. But yet, there was something in his voice that convinced that he was telling her the truth.

"You are the only Yuuzhan Vong spy in this Palace," Fleim repeated with the same bland tone. It was that repetition that was followed up by her fellow guard, Mellan, who was just outside the refresher as backup.

"There are, however, other Yuuzhan Vong spies across the galaxy," Lah said. "For we are making our return; we will wipe you infidels out, and with the support of Zonama Sekot, we will dominate over all as we have under Supreme Overlord Shimrra."

It was only after that did Lah decide to break that upper tooth and use his more stable teeth to bite down on that suicide pill. A few seconds later, the white foam that began gurgling from his mouth signified the end of his life.

Elsewhere in the Fountain Palace, in the comfort of his own quarters, Plagueis smiled devilishly, giving himself a mental pat on the back for how he managed to manipulate those three in Qau Lah's cabin.

.

"Private Fleim and Private Mellan," Allana said on her austere throne before the kneeling guards, "while I understand that neither of you had the opportunity to find out why the Yuuzhan Vong spy gave you the information that he did, given the obvious circumstance of his death, I must ask why it never occurred to you that he gave this information."

Both guards' eyes widened with the realization that they both failed to come to earlier in their confrontation with the Vong. They looked to each other briefly, only to find the same look in the other's face, before giving their Queen Mother a unified pleading regard.

Allana held up her hand to prevent either of them from even opening their mouths. "Never mind. You did good. Return to your duties at once. Dismissed." After both guards left, the Queen Mother looked at Poik, who was observing Allana's interaction with Fleim and Mellan from one of the opposite corners of the throne room.

"You and Doctor Cavaz also did good in informing the Palace Guard about this threat, Poik," Allana said as the chamberlain approached the throne to kneel in obeisance.

"Well, it wasn't just us, Milady," Poik said in an earnest tone. "It was thanks to Doctor Yehaj for identifying those spores that Doctor Cavaz and I inhaled of being Yuuzhan Vong in origin."

"She will be commended, along with everyone else who handled this situation," Allana stated. "In the meantime, however, we must warn the rest of the Consortium of this new Yuuzhan Vong threat, along with our allies in the Imperial Remnant and even the Confederation."

"The Confederation, Milady?" Poik asked.

"We can't let any part of the galaxy fall to the Vong ever again, Poik, even if the Confederation were twice before our enemies," Allana told her. "Besides, it would be good to refresh relationships with the Confederation and establish a new alliance with them. In either case, however, while I may not have been around when the Yuuzhan Vong War occurred, I know enough history to know what a renewed threat from them could mean for all of us.

"Get me a commlink; the whole galaxy must know."


	9. Chapter 9

"Milady," Allana's adviser, Ulik Quraq, said as she stepped in from off to the side of the Queen Mother's throne, "if I may be so bold, announcing this new Yuuzhan Vong threat to the rest of the galaxy now would be an extremely terrible idea." Quraq had been an extremely quiet, practically unnoticeable character for quite sometime after Allana became the Hapes Consortium's Queen Mother so far; apparently, she thought that the ten-year-old monarch had been doing well enough in fulfilling her duties in ruling the Consortium, so it seemed as if it were quite a feat to get her to announce that she felt that her queen made a bad decision.

Allana called Poik back to kneel before her just as the chamberlain was halfway to the exit of the throne room. After Poik settled back into position, the Queen Mother looked at Quraq. "Do explain."

"Imagine the chaos and rioting across the worlds under the protectorate of this Consortium and the Imperial Remnant, Your Majesty," Quraq elaborated. "We would be too occupied in controlling the anarchy that we had such a hard time quelling following Coruscant's destruction, and these Vong spies will no doubt take advantage of such a distraction, undermining us while we're busy elsewhere. I do agree, however, that our military and Head of State Reige of the Remnant and his military should know about it so they can root out these Vong spies."

Allana nodded. "Excellent point." She returned her attention to her dutiful chamberlain. "Retrieve my comm after all, Poik, but make sure it's set to Head of State Reige's comm frequency only."

"Of course, Milady," Poik nodded in obeisance before standing up, bowing, and turning and leaving to accomplish her task.

After Allana was sure that Poik was gone, however, she looked over at Quraq again. "Make sure security is tightened up. Somehow, I doubt that the Yuuzhan Vong that Privates Fleim and Mellan confronted was the only Vong spy in this Palace."

"Yes, Your Highness," Quraq said as she took out her commlink and keyed for the Palace Guard Captain's comm frequency.

_I also doubt that Plagueis isn't involved with this Vong thing_, Allana thought.

.

A little after the riots over Coruscant's loss died down to a mere moan on the part of the former citizens of the Galactic Alliance, now integrated under the new leadership of the combined Hapes Consortium and Imperial Remnant whether they liked it or not, the asteroid field that was once the Coruscant system became a profitable piece of territory for mining guilds. The precious minerals and metals that were left in the wake of Coruscant's destruction were just ripe for the picking, and even with the abundant catches that all of the mining ships had received so far, it didn't seem as if the supply of what was once the capital of the now-dead Galactic Alliance or any of its dead planets were dwindling so far.

If it were a backwater planet, or a backwater system in general, Lando Calrissian would be his usual self, sitting back and letting his feet up on his office desk aboard the _Lady Luck_ with his wife Tendra in his lap as they both looked out through their yacht's viewport at the operations. Instead, Lando, alone in his office, was looking out through his office's viewport at the asteroid field with the haggard, tired look of a man his age, unable to separate from his mind the fact that billions of people died here just a month earlier. What was worse was that the planet that resulted in the destruction of this system had once been the capital of the very government that Lando's friends - Luke, Han, Leia, and the rest - had fought for; and while it may have been Fyor Rodan's fault that Coruscant had been destroyed, Lando couldn't help but think that this was all Allana's fault.

Little Allana, Lando thought with a tinge of shame. A girl like her, so young, leading a powerful government like the Hapes Consortium into a war that resulted in the loss of everything that her grandparents and elders had fought for, to defend for. Now Lando had no choice but to act as a cooperative citizen with Tendra and Chance to the Consortium-Remnant pact, because that's where all the money lay at this point.

Squeezing a fist, Lando banged against the viewport frame. _Why am I thinking like that? Han and Leia would look upon me with more shame than when they realized I betrayed them to Vader and Fett_. He expressed those exact words with Tendra, but she told him that it was pointless to join Wedge and the others in trying to counter the Consortium or the Remnant now; the Galactic Alliance was as dead as Coruscant, and the rest of the galaxy had to move on.

_This still isn't right_, Lando thought.

As if in response, the commlink on his belt beeped, and Lando took it out to activate it. "Yeah?"

"You better come down to the cockpit right now," Tendra's voice said curtly from the other end.

Before he could respond, Lando looked back up to the viewport to find red lasers that were fired away from the sides of the _Lady Luck_ toward the asteroid field, where several of the mining ships were suddenly destroyed in the resultant strikes.

"On my way," Lando said just as curtly before he cut the connection and hurriedly left his office.

Mere moments later, he was in the cockpit and sat himself down in the pilot seat, with Tendra as copilot, and he found several Star Destroyers firing over, beneath, and to the sides of the _Luck_ in the direction of the field behind the yacht. Lando then looked to the sensors to find that, in spite of the formal declaration by the latest Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium that it was gone, these Destroyers were of the Galactic Alliance.

It was only after Lando checked these things did he finally notice that the ship's inset comm was blinking. He opened up a channel.

"You and Tendra are still welcome to join the New Rebellion, Lando," Wedge Antilles's voice said from the other end. "In either case, I wouldn't be investing in any of your mining businesses for quite a while at this point."

"What are you doing here, Wedge? Why are you blowing up my ships and slaughtering uncountable thousands of mining employees here?" Lando asked with righteous anger.

"Sorry about that, Lando," Wedge replied with genuine regret, "but your ships are mining material that would give the Hapes Consortium and the Imperial Remnant more weapons, warships, projectiles, and other things like that. They need as little of that as possible if this war is to be level between our side and theirs."

"Wouldn't the New Rebellion find all this to be profitable, Wedge?" Lando asked.

"And wouldn't the Consortium or the Remnant come back here to kick our asses and reclaim what they'll say is rightfully theirs, and with more mining ships to boot?" Wedge retorted. "No, we're just delaying them while we continue to build up our own forces. So, again, are you and Tendra with us or against us, Lando?"

Husband and wife looked at each other, with wife giving her spouse a shake of her head, and husband giving her a grimace.

"Well, like he said," Lando stated with a shrug, "I ain't enough of a gambler when it comes to going up against Wedge Antilles, honey."

"Lando, if you're going to do this," Tendra said, "you're going to do it alone. I don't want to bring Chance into this, and I'll stay out of it entirely."

Lando activated the inset comm again. "Wedge, can you gimme a minute or two here while you're still destroying my mining ships?"

"Just don't take too long," Wedge quipped.

Lando looked back at his wife. "If I am gonna do this, I need to know you and Chance will still be there for me when I get back."

Tendra sighed loudly. "Promise me the same, and it's a done deal."

Lando smiled his signature roguish grin. "Then we have an accord." He activated the comm again. "Wedge, I hope you don't mind if Tendra doesn't join us; but don't worry, she promises she won't go against us."

"For you and Tendra, I have no choice but to take that risk," Wedge said. "So we'll pick you up in an escape pod, Lando."

"Sounds about right to me," Lando said before signing off and getting out of his seat to make for one of the _Luck_'s pods.


	10. Chapter 10

Arrayed in four perfect circles around the perimeter of the Fountain Palace were all of the staff that served in the Queen Mother's home, and right now, each individual among them was personally being investigated by Allana Djo Solo herself. Her Majesty had called for this assembly just half an hour earlier through a Palace-wide transmission that reached out through the commlinks of each person now assembled. She didn't say why, but Phaa Anor didn't need any confirmation as to what the Queen Mother was thinking; she wasn't fooled by Qau Lah's claim that he was the only Yuuzhan Vong in the Palace, in spite of Plagueis's assurances that she would, so she decided she would figure out who was a spy herself.

Because of all this, Phaa Anor could barely suppress the urge to quake in fear where he stood, six minutes into the Queen Mother's investigation. Lord Plagueis managed to intercept him on the way out with the rest of the Palace's inhabitants and told him that neither he nor any of his other agents needed to fear being exposed as Yuuzhan Vong, in spite of their lack of presences in the Force. Phaa Anor held his tongue, only out of fear of death, from outright pointing out before his most dangerous Master that his oh-so brilliant plan of letting Fountain Palace security figure out that there was at least one Yuuzhan Vong in the Palace was what led to this.

Aside from himself, and aside from the late Qau Lah, Phaa Anor had exactly eleven agents carrying out their roles in Plagueis's plans in the Fountain Palace. Given this fact, and considering how much time had passed since Djo Solo's investigation had started, Phaa Anor was surprised to find that she hadn't discovered any of his spies; perhaps Plagueis had something to do with this. Maybe he had nothing to worry, after all, Phaa Anor thought, and that when his Master was confident that they wouldn't be exposed, then he shouldn't be so on the edge. The head Yuuzhan Vong spy of the Fountain Palace felt that he could look over Plagueis's misled plan of leaving Poik and Dr. Cavaz alive long enough to find out that they inhaled spy spores as a mere fluke; after all, no one, not even an immortal and powerful Sith Lord like Darth Plagueis, as wise as he also was, was infallible... but they can still be very close to being so.

The Queen Mother, along with her chamberlain and silent adviser, were coming over here now, Phaa Anor thought, from off to his right, still within the first circle around the Palace. And as they made her round toward him, he, along with the other Palace inhabitants with him from either side, noticed what Djo Solo was doing. For each individual, she spent exactly two seconds staring at them, no doubt probing them with the Force to ascertain that they had presences, before spending three seconds levitating herself up to the heights of the individual before her. She spent another three seconds grabbing at their nose and pinching them before releasing them and floating herself back to the ground.

_So the Queen Mother was told how to unveil ooglith masquers_, Phaa Anor thought. He hoped that whatever Plagueis did to prevent Djo Solo from figuring out the spies who didn't have a presence in the Force - if she had even come into contact with any of them yet, for none of his own were in his sights - also worked on preventing her from opening up his own ooglith masquers... and by extension, the masquers of his immediate subordinates.

Phaa Anor's thoughts were soon put to the test once the Queen Mother stood before him. She narrowed her eyes upon his profile for two seconds before levitating up to his height and pinching his nose, which would normally unveil his disguise in an instant. But, even to his own surprise, when the ooglith masquer didn't peel back from his body, the Queen Mother released his nose and floated back gently to the ground.

Just as he suppressed the tempting quakes of fear that threatened to spasm his muscles, Phaa Anor suppressed the sigh of relief that threatened to escape him even after the Queen Mother was out of his sight, for it wouldn't do to display such a feeling to all those non-spies around him; it would only let on that Her Majesty's investigative tactics weren't working as well as she thought, even if all it did would raise an eyebrow or two from anyone from either side.

However, Phaa Anor couldn't help but look up in the direction of the Fountain Palace, where Lord Plagueis's suite was located. The Sith Lord himself looked impassively in Phaa Anor's general direction through his cabin's viewport, but the head spy of the Palace still noticed the near-unnoticeable smile, which lasted for less than a second, at his specific direction. Phaa Anor gave his Master a similarly undetectable smile in return.

.

The missing seat once occupied by the now-incarcerated former Moff Natasi Daala left the Moff Council Meeting Room's table on Bastion an incomplete circle of seats from which the council itself, along with its Head of State, Vitor Reige, were now presently meeting for an assembly that Reige posted on their datapad notifications as being of top priority. Many of the Moffs assembled looked mildly disgruntled as they stared at their leader with his Chiss aide, Ashik, standing dutifully behind his seated form, but otherwise, they all looked civil enough to receive whatever news Reige had to give them.

"I have called this meeting to order," Reige began, "because I have some most disturbing news from Queen Mother Djo Solo: the Yuuzhan Vong are back."

The level looks aimed at Reige turned into full-blown shock, but yet, they still remained silent to let the Head of State continue. The Moffs' leader then reached into his pocket to take out his datapad, place it upon his desk, and activated it with one push of a button, which brought up a holo of a naked male Yuuzhan Vong corpse being carried out of a luxurious suite by two Hapan women, both dressed in Fountain Palace security uniforms. When the holo ended, Reige turned the datapad off and returned it to his pocket.

"Not long after she told me of this incident in her Palace, the Queen Mother called me again to inform me that while no other Yuuzhan Vong spies were found in her home, this one spy symbolizes the all-too real possibility of a second Vong invasion," Reige told the Moffs stern-faced. "Which is why she told me, near the end of her second report, that both the Hapes Consortium and the Remnant should each spare a single solitary fleet for the Unknown Regions in order to find the living world of Zonama Sekot and destroy it in a coordinated attack, wiping out the majority of the Vong there."

"That still leaves the issue of Vong spies who are out in the greater galaxy, Head of State," Moff Drikl Lecersen pointed out.

Reige nodded. "Something that the Queen Mother and I both agree will be dealt with in time, along with Wedge Antilles and Mirax Horn's New Rebellion. But for now, our main concern is in exterminating the Yuuzhan Vong."


	11. Chapter 11

The entryway to Lord Plagueis's cabin opened upon Phaa Anor's approach, as the head spy of the Yuuzhan Vong's Fountain Palace division predicted; always using the Force and his crassly-named Vongsense simultaneously, Plagueis always knew when one of his own would come. So Phaa Anor used only enough time to look left and right to see if there were any others approaching from either end before entering Plagueis's suite.

"What is it that you wished to see me about, Phaa Anor?" Plagueis asked, seated on the plush couch in the middle of the cabin's living space.

"It was about how you were able to prevent the Queen Mother from determining my spies and myself in this palace, My Lord," Phaa Anor answered. "May I ask how your powers were able to work on her?"

"Ah, yes, I have told you and all those faithful in my empire, Phaa Anor, about how impossible it is for my powers to have any effect on Her Majesty, and even my telepathic abilities with her waned since I returned to this reality," Plagueis recounted. He then stood up from the couch. "Come. Let me show you what one of your spies retrieved for me before Poik and Doctor Cavaz inhaled your spy spores." The Sith Lord then led the way toward the cabin's dining area, and Phaa Anor followed suit.

A few seconds later, after they both arrived, the head spy stopped dead in his tracks upon seeing the meter-length red worm-like creature placed on the dining area. His eyes were widened in shock in viewing the creature, which writhed in vain on the table for escape, before Phaa Anor looked over at Plagueis.

"It is a taozin," the Sith Lord answered before Phaa Anor could even ask. "A species thought by the galaxy at large to be extinct, but only endangered, and spread out in various locations throughout the galaxy. One of the first things I did upon settling myself in this reality was sending out one of your spies to the Roche sector, specifically to a jungle moon called Va'art, to retrieve this. A little after you told me that Doctor Cavaz and the Queen Mother's chamberlain would conspire to assassinate Her Majesty, that very spy returned with this taozin, and I began experimenting with it to see if it would help break down the Queen Mother's immunity to my Force powers."

"How is that possible?" Phaa Anor asked.

"You obviously don't know what a taozin can do," Plagueis stated in a matter-of-fact way. "They can repress one's ability in the Force. But because I am immortal, and therefore beyond the normal boundaries of the Force itself, I can continue to use my own powers without trouble."

"And you have had decades of research and study into the Force in your first life," Phaa Anor stated. "So science is not alien to you."

"Which was why it was so easy to utilize it to counter the Queen Mother's immunity to me, making her as vulnerable as any other being," Plagueis explained with an evil grin. "While I honestly didn't expect her to investigate the Fountain Palace's inhabitants even after I forced Qau Lah's confession prior to his death, Her Majesty's investigation provided me with the perfect opportunity to test what I could do with this taozin."

"Well, given how short of a time you had since receiving this taozin and the Queen Mother's recent investigation, My Lord, I would assume you still have much to learn from this creature?" Phaa Anor inquired.

Plagueis nodded. "Indeed, I do. But considering what I was able to accomplish in such a short time of investigating this taozin, I would say have quite a head-start."

"How were you able to do it, though? Utilizing this taozin with your powers to fool the Queen Mother?"

"Well, as we both pointed out, Phaa Anor, I didn't have much time to really investigate this taozin, especially with the Queen Mother's abrupt announcement of her investigation, so, in my haste and, admittedly, desperation, all I did was this." He placed both hands upon the taozin, and the area between his palms and the creature glowed a dark red. Plagueis then took his hands off the taozin and looked back at Phaa Anor. "At that point, I knew I had full control of the beast and its capabilities, as the Force told me. And I used what I had on the Queen Mother, saving you and your spies from exposition."

"Truly impressive, even for you, My Lord," Phaa Anor commented.

"Is your business with me concluded for now, Phaa Anor?" Plagueis inquired.

The head spy nodded. "It is, sir."

"Then you are dismissed."

.

In the reality ruled by Darth Plagueis's Yuuzhan Vong Empire, Yuuzhan'tar, the world once known as Coruscant, acted as much of a base for the aforementioned government as it did its rival resistance, led by _Jeedai_ Jacen Solo, the Shamed Overlord Onimi, and Yu'shaa the Prophet himself, Nom Anor. But, unlike Plagueis's Empire, which ruled all of the upper levels of the falsely-proclaimed Yuuzhan'tar, the resistance ruled what the Shamed Ones had always ruled since the Yuuzhan Vong, once led truly by Onimi via the figurehead of the late Shimrra Jamaane, conquered Coruscant from the New Republic: the aptly-named lowly Undercity.

And it was from inside one of the decrepit buildings in the vast Undercity that the resistance would begin its first true strike against Darth Plagueis's Empire.

The three leaders of the Yuuzhan Vong Rebellion - Jacen Solo, Onimi, and Nom Anor - strode inside Master Shaper Nen Yim's grand laboratory, and it was Onimi who asked the woman he once forced naked, "Is our RTD almost complete, Nen Tsup?"

Ignoring that jab, just as Solo and Nom Anor did for the sake of moving along in defeating Plagueis, Nen Yim answered, "I am happy to report that it will only take another hour before the Reality Travel Device is complete. It will only need a test-run before we can input any coordinates, or find out where Plagueis and his spies went."

"You need not worry about that, Master Shaper," a feminine voice said behind the Yuuzhan Vong Rebellion's three leaders. The form of that voice - that of a Fosh woman - bounded slightly beside Solo, who stood leftmost of the trio, with Onimi beside him and Nom Anor last to the right. "I already know where Plagueis and his spies went."

"As much as you trust the Force, Vergere..." Nen Yim began to argue before she was cut off.

"You need not fear Vergere's judgment, Master Shaper Nen Yim, nor her faith in the Force," Solo said with assurance. "You need only mind the completion of the RTD."

Nen Yim's lips firmed with reluctance, but she relented with a nod. "By your lead." She then turned back to join the completion of the organic device with her team of shapers.

Vergere then bound to stand before Solo, Onimi, and Nom Anor to watch Nen Yim and her team work. "She need not fear your faith in the Force, Vergere," Nom Anor said to the Fosh. "At least the Force is real."

"Even if everything she says is a lie," Onimi quipped.


	12. Chapter 12

As her co-Prime Minister, Denjax Teppler, called in sick for the day, Genna Delpin, one of the two leaders of the Five Worlds of Corellia, never thought for a second that Teppler would be the lucky one before the blasterproof viewport to her office exploded in an intense inferno. Her left side facing the explosion while she had been focusing on her work on her datapad, Delpin was unceremoniously blown off to her right, still in her seat, before turning to her back to face what had once been her and Teppler's office viewport.

The smoke blocking out the view from the outside world managed to cover up the entrance of a red-armored Mandalorian - its helmet obscuring whether or not it was a man or woman of whatever species beneath the armor - floating in on a jetpack, the flames from its pack only adding to the raging fire behind it. Upon seeing the Mando fly in, Delpin, acting only on her strict military training, quickly rolled backward out of the resultant blastershot that came from her would-be assassin, the bolt that was fired scorching where she laid just a second earlier, and she avoided the next bolt by rolling behind her desk.

There, Delpin quickly banged her left elbow onto a specific spot, which then opened up a hidden compartment that contained a military-grade holdout blaster. Of course, before she could even get a chance to use it, she noticed the thermal detonator that then dropped before her, ticking off the seconds before it would go off. Without hesitation, Delpin leaped up and backward onto the desk, her back now facing the Mando trying to kill her, but before she could swivel around to level her blaster at him, the detonator exploded and sent her rocketing backwards.

As expected, she collided with the Mandalorian, which sent the former hitting the floor while the latter was sent off course to its right, where its jetpack crashed against the wall there before its pilot could get a chance to get its bearings back. In response, the jetpack exploded, and the Mandalorian flew forward to the other side of the room, where it landed prone to the floor.

Meanwhile, Delpin, whose body was now sore, not only from the shockwave of the detonator's explosion, but also from colliding against an armored Mandalorian, forced herself to her hands and knees so that she could fire into a weak spot in between the plates that covered the downed Mando's shoulder blades. But before she could pull the trigger, the Mando quickly rolled to its back and leveled its right forearm for her. Less than a second later, fire shot from it, and Delpin had to drop back to the floor so that she could barrel-roll to the spot behind her desk from which she sat several times before.

She then forcefully propped herself to her knees again and fired off several wildly-placed shots in the Mando's general direction. The shots, however, only ricocheted off the would-be assassin's armor and into the walls, floor, and ceiling of the now-burning Prime Ministers' office, and they did nothing to stop the Mando from taking out, priming, and throwing another thermal detonator for its target.

Fortunately for the aforementioned target, one of her broadly-aimed bolts coincidentally hit the detonator right on the mark, prematurely activating its resultant explosion and sending the still-downed Mandalorian skidding back across the ground and crashing through the wall of the office behind him.

There, from either direction, the Prime Ministers' Building's security team was rushing toward the Mandalorian and brandishing their standard-issue blasters down upon it. But, even when they began firing at his sudden movements, none of the bolts converging upon it, lethal or stun, managed to connect with any nerves thanks to its armor, allowing the Mando to take out two blasters and gun down several guards. The survivors quickly retreated to hide behind the corners and take refuge there as a safer option in terms of engaging in a firefight.

Rather than continuing to engage the guards, though, the Mandalorian flipped to its feet and rushed back through the hole that it just crashed through and hurried for the desk which it last saw Delpin hiding behind. It vaulted over the desk and, before its feet even touched the floor, aimed both blasters at where it figured Delpin would still be hiding, only to find that she wasn't there.

Instead was a thermal detonator that had five seconds from going off, courtesy of Genna Delpin herself.

Without wasting anytime, the Mandalorian vaulted back over the desk again and ran a mere few feet before the detonator behind it went off, carrying it the rest of the way toward the hole that it was first blasted through so that it landed prone right at the hole's exit.

The Mando then tried to push itself up, only to find a pressure at its back pushing it straight back down, and the next thing it knew, its helmet was pulled off by the owner of the boot pressing it down, Genna Delpin.

The now-un-helmeted Mandalorian, Belok Rhal, looked up hatefully at his would-be target, who aimed her blaster down at him. Behind her were the remaining guards that Rhal didn't gun down.

"I suppose Denjax Teppler sent you, Mister Rhal?" Delpin asked with smugness heavy in her tone.

"Blow me, Delpin," Rhal proclaimed loudly and in a rather unnatural tone.

In response, from the ruins of his jetpack in the wall it crashed through, the sole surviving rocket placed there, encased in a special _beskar_ package in case the jetpack itself was ever destroyed - which it indeed was - was then released and targeted at the unknowing Genna Delpin before it. In less than two seconds, it was off and charging for the co-Prime Minister's chest.

It impacted against her and sent her flying and screaming back through several walls behind her before sending her out through the last wall, where she flew for a few seconds over several stories before the rocket blew up, taking her with it.

In the meantime, after Delpin had dropped Rhal's helmet just when she was blown back by the rocket, her assassin quickly replaced the helmet on his head, grabbed his blasters back up, leaped up, and gunned down the rest of the security personnel before him in mere seconds.

Whirling his blasters back in the holsters on his belt, Rhal turned back to the origin of the inferno consuming what was once the late Genna Delpin's office and rushed through it, his armor protecting him from the licking flames. He jumped out and fell for only a few feet before he landed perfectly on his hindquarters in the seat of an airspeeder, right next to his purple-armored companion, who drove the vehicle that was piloting them away from where Delpin met her untimely demise.


	13. Chapter 13

With the ruins of the Prime Ministers' Building behind him, and the hundreds of media representatives in front of him, and slightly below his height considering that he was standing on a raised dais, now-sole Prime Minister Denjax Teppler was delivering the speech that he hoped would convince not only the public, but also his own government, what the Confederation needed to do.

"...from the ruins of this attack," he was saying, "the resultant police investigation has uncovered a substantial piece of evidence that links the murder of my esteemed colleague, Genna Delpin, as well as the burning of the building behind me, to both the Hapes Consortium and the Imperial Remnant." Teppler allowed the audience before him to release the gasps of shock in response to what he told them. He then began taking out something from his pocket as he continued with, "Given the severity of the situation, I had quickly asked Chief Jeddak if I was allowed to present this evidence to the media, and I am grateful to him, and the entire CPD, for providing me this crucial piece of information. And for all those wondering how this transmission was caught in the first place, a rather lethargic employee of the Five Worlds Secret Service, who has since lost his job for neglectful conduct for not reporting this transmission to his superiors before this tragedy even occurred in the first place, had commed this entire discussion.

"For the purposes of getting to the point here, I will only play a small excerpt from this discussion, and, again, to all those wondering, I have not taken anything out of context here. To those who doubt these words after what they're about to hear, the CPD is ready to release the entirety of this conversation out on the HoloNet following my broadcast of this particular snippet."

Teppler then laid the datapad that he took out of his pocket, placed it on the stand directly in front of him, and pressed a button that activated the recording that, again, he hoped would convince the whole of the Confederation to fall into his sway. From his touch, and just as his audience fell completely silent, the voice of Hapan Queen Mother Allana Djo Solo said, "I hear that you're the best that Mandos have to offer, Mister Rhal... aside from Boba Fett, of course."

"Enough with the humbling, Your Majesty," Belok Rhal snorted derisively. "I'll take care of Teppler and Delpin for you and Reige. Just make sure my money's secured." The recording ended there, and Teppler pressed another button on the datapad to shut it off before looking convincingly grief-stricken out at the media representatives.

"As it stands, the Corellian Intergalactic Defense Force has already issued a warrant for the arrest of the Mandalorian mercenary known as Belok Rhal over the charges of murdering Prime Minister Delpin, over a dozen security guards, and burning down the very building behind me yesterday," Teppler explained. "However, as much as Rhal is responsible for this great tragedy upon this august nation, Hapan Queen Mother Allana Djo Solo and Imperial Head of State Vitor Reige hold just as much to blame. That is why I have already issued a statement to Admiral Turr Phennir of our mighty fleet that we will soon be aiding Admiral Wedge Antilles and Captain Mirax Horn's New Rebellion against both the Consortium and the Remnant, a sentiment that Admiral Phennir himself highly agrees with. I will now take questions."

.

In his luxurious penthouse on Chandrila, Rheol Bhar, formerly known as Belok Rhal thanks to plastic surgery altering his features, and his wife, Lujura, both smiled as they, relaxing comfortably on the couch they shared, watched Teppler on the HoloNet take questions from the various reporters out in the crowd he just spoke to. Rheol and Lujura raised up their glasses of wine and clinked them together in a triumphant toast before gulping down the last of the alcohol they had with them.

"You think I should risk sending Teppler a message thanking him for throwing in those credits for plastic surgery as well, Lujura?" Rheol asked.

Lujura shook her head. "Let's not risk that, Rheol."

Rheol nodded. "Agreed." He and his wife then looked back at the HoloNet transceiver to enjoy the rest of Teppler's press conference.

Of course, that was quickly cut short as soon as Rheol's head drooped away from Lujura as soon as he fell unconscious. A few seconds later, when his wife took notice of the small dart in the side of his neck facing her, she also dropped unconscious against his form thanks to another copy of that dart that didn't even sting her.

As soon as she dropped, the door to the penthouse opened up, and a civilian-dressed Mirta Gev Orade, with a modestly-sized purse hanging by her shoulder, walked in to assess Rheol and Lujura. She then looked out through the penthouse's window and gave a thumbs-up to the hidden Mandalorian sniper placed on the roof of the building opposite the penthouse before she unzipped her purse to take out the human-sized bags there.

Without hesitation, Mirta soon placed both Rheol and Lujura in each bag, feet first, zipping the bags up to make sure their heads were hidden but not completely so they could still receive oxygen. She then dragged them toward the window, dropping them at her feet only to open up the window before hoisting the bagged unconscious couple up on her shoulders.

From there, it was only a matter of waiting less than half a minute before an inconspicuous airspeeder, piloted by Mirta's civilian-dressed husband Ghes, pulled up so that its now-open trunk faced the window. Mirta deposited the bag with Rheol first before topping him with his bagged wife, then the Mandalorian shut and locked the trunk before her husband rotated the speeder ninety degrees so that its passenger side faced Mirta. She then vaulted over the window so that she ended up sitting next to Ghes, who then zoomed the vehicle off toward Chandrila's spaceport.


	14. Chapter 14

"The RTD is ready," Nen Yim reported to the four leaders of the Yuuzhan Vong Resistance in her laboratory. "We can now activate it and-"

The Master Shaper was cut off from saying anymore when a deep rumble shook the building they were all in for five seconds before stopping just as abruptly.

"What was that?" one of Nen Yim's subordinate shapers asked out of worry.

Another rumble punctuated the disturbing silence, just as long and deep as the first.

"They've found us," Jacen said with the utmost calm as more rumbles followed. "Plagueis's spy network's found us, and I can sense them pounding through all of the upper floors of this building to get down to us."

"Indeed, they are," Vergere affirmed, another rumble punctuating her words.

"I sense them, too," Onimi backed up. "And Domina is leading the descent for us."

Just when Nom Anor, Nen Yim, and the latter's shapers started to panic, Vergere called out, "Everyone, keep calm! Jacen, Onimi, and I will form a Force shield above us to rappel the invaders!" At the Fosh's nod, she and the two male Force-users behind her then closed their eyes, raised their arms, and projected the invisible Force to prevent the enemy from coming through via above.

It would have worked, had the invaders not come from below.

Chunks of debris were flung up from the center of the lab, blowing back all those who were near enough from it. Among them were the four leaders of the resistance, Nen Yim, and a few of her scientists.

At that point, chaos began flooding the room thanks to the screaming shapers who were still on their feet, the pandemonium only added as vonduun crab-armored warriors began leaping up from the hole to begin their massacre. Two warriors each had already rushed to all of the lab's exits to prevent any of the scientists from escaping, and cutting down any who came their way with their amphistaffs.

As the shapers all throughout the lab began to die helplessly before the wrath of the well-trained warriors, the four leaders of the resistance and Nen Yim had already got to their feet and looked around at the bloodshed occurring, not sure what to do now.

"Nen Yim, look out!" Vergere shouted as she pointed behind the Master Shaper.

But it was too late; as Nen Yim turned around to face her attacker, the latter had already made his move, and the large male Yuuzhan Vong warrior slashed his amphistaff across, decapitating the Master Shaper. In response, just as Nen Yim's headless body collapsed to the floor, Onimi flung some poisonous droplets of forced sweat from his right palm at the warrior's unshielded face, where he fell to the floor screaming in agony thanks to the sweat's acidic properties dissolving his visage.

Nom Anor then bent down and took the dying warrior's amphistaff, hardening it to a club before he looked at his fellow leaders with determination. "Who's with me?"

"Onimi, you go with Nom Anor, Jacen and I will handle the rest," Vergere said.

At the affirmed nods of the others, they spread out and began taking on the other warriors, Nom Anor using the element of surprise as he managed to sneak up on busy warriors and strike them down with his confiscated amphistaff. At his side, Onimi continued manufacturing toxic compounds from his system to fling out as bodily fluids at the enemy soldiers, where they fell to the floor to join their comrades in their death-throes. Meanwhile, Jacen already had his green lightsaber out and active, engaging Yuuzhan Vong soldiers two at a time, at most, and trading at least five clashes before slicing penetrating their armors' weak spots and killing them. Likewise, as Onimi was also doing, Vergere leaked tears at a rapid pace so that she'd let them fall to her palms and fling them at incoming enemies, killing them where they stood.

Soon, there were only a dozen warriors left, but none of the shapers had survived. Hence, the leaders of the Yuuzhan Vong Resistance stood back-to-back as they faced the ring of the twelve remaining troops surrounding them, a little ways away from the hole in the floor that the troops had first arrived.

Before anyone in the lab could make a move, however, a form sprung up from the hole in the floor and landed in front of Onimi, where they stared each other down while Onimi's colleagues continued to face their own foes.

The most recent arrival was a female Yuuzhan Vong of in top physical shape, her armor decorated in the red of so much spilled blood that there weren't even patches of the armor's true colors showing anymore. In her left hand, she carried the shortened amphistaff that denoted significant command among her people.

"Domina," Onimi said with acid in his tone; not just figuratively, but also literally, as he was actually readying himself to spit at her and hope it would hit the mark to dissolve her where she stood. "How nice to see you again." His voice couldn't have been anymore sarcastic.

"Hello, Onimi," Domina replied with a mockery of affection in her own tone. "How are things?"

"Kriff you," he replied. Then he spat at her.

But she then ducked beneath the acidic spit and charged him, her amphistaff at the ready. The warriors surrounding the resistance leaders took Domina's charge as their cue to follow suit.

Instead of facing her, however, Onimi moved out of the way of Domina's attack, and, thanks to the coordination offered through their link in the Force, allowed Jacen to switch positions with him and block off the warriors' leader's amphistaff. In turn, Onimi managed to down the three warriors that Jacen would have faced with his biologically-produced compounds.

However, Domina took advantage of the block Jacen offered to leap up and kick him across the head with her left foot. Jacen then stumbled out of the circle he formed with his fellow leaders, and Domina flipped towards his direction. She used her amphistaff to knock the lightsaber out of his hand, simultaneously cutting down his arm along the way.

Upon her landing, she reveled as she watched him collapse to the floor in agony. "Oh, do not think you can cleanse yourself of this amphistaff's venom, Solo," Domina gloated. "I made sure the shapers who worked on this particular weapon configured it so that you wouldn't be able to counter it."

Meanwhile, Nom Anor managed to down the second warrior he was facing, but he was quickly distracted as Jacen collapsed prone to the floor at the other end of the room. Hence, that was why the remaining warrior managed to plunge the head of his own amphistaff into Nom Anor's chest. The leader once known as Yu'shaa the Prophet looked back in shock and pain at his smirking foe, and that face was the last Nom Anor saw before the world faded in his sight.

The warrior who killed Nom Anor, however, was quickly set upon from behind by Onimi, who tackled him to the floor and bit his giant fang into the soldier's unprotected neck, sending through the venom that ended his life in less than five seconds. But just as that warrior was still dying, Onimi looked up to find his human friend meeting his demise and calling out, "Jacen!"

Jacen's killer, Domina, turned from the form of the fallen human and smiled evilly at Onimi. The latter, in turn, leaped from the dead body he was atop of and flung himself toward the woman. He managed to parry aside, with his own left hand, the amphistaff Domina threw his way, but he had no way of countering the green lightsaber blade that Domina quickly impaled through his chest.

"Goodbye, my love," Domina said before giving Onimi one last kiss. He was dead before she ended it.

Upon deactivating Solo's lightsaber and allowing Onimi's corpse to slump to the floor, Domina looked at the remaining Yuuzhan Vong Resistance leader, the Fosh Vergere, who managed to kill the last warrior in the laboratory with her toxic tears. Vergere then turned to regard her remaining enemy with determination, which Domina matched with her own look.

Vergere then charged, and Domina took that as her cue to charge back, but just when they got close enough to engage, Vergere leaped up and over Domina's head just as the latter swiped at the Fosh's head with Solo's lightsaber. The bird woman then landed in a tuck-and-roll on the floor and bounded the rest of the way to Nen Yim's RTD. Domina quickly turned and chased after the remaining resistance leader.

Domina, however, was quickly cut off from the chase when Vergere stopped abruptly and used the Force to fling some debris, courtesy of the hole in the floor, toward Domina, which struck the Yuuzhan Vong in all the weak points in her armor. She was then flung down to the floor as Vergere resumed her pace for the RTD.

By the time Domina recovered from the impacts of the debris, she looked up, only to find Vergere's form disappear in a flash of white light in the RTD. Domina roared before the flash disappeared.


	15. Chapter 15

Because of Lando Calrissian's joining with the New Rebellion, the resistance against the combined forces of the Hapes Consortium and the Imperial Remnant received a significant increase in weapons and war vessels thanks to Tendrando Arms, all of which went unaccounted for in the company's official records. If it weren't for Tendrando's management under Tendra Risant Calrissian, though, the departure of thousands of manufactured vessels from the Almanian system would have been noticed by both the Consortium and the Remnant, which would have predicted when and where the New Rebellion would have used their new resources against the united governments.

And that was why no one but the New Rebellion themselves saw a portion of those warships - which were still a significant force to contend with in their own united right - enter the Bilbringi system, now occupied by the Consortium-Remnant pact since Coruscant's destruction and the complete downfall of the Galactic Alliance. Hence, the New Rebels had the element of surprise on their side as they began shooting at the precious shipyards with their Mandalorian allies.

Among the Mandos was their leader himself, Boba Fett, leading the charge here in the _Slave I_ as a show of force on the side of the New Rebellion, signifying one of their first attacks against the Consortium and Remnant as an important cause. The faction he led here, which were a hundred percent of the Mandalorian forces now in the system, targeted the shipyards facing the Outer Rim while the shipyards facing the Core were assaulted by Commander Eldo Davip, one of Admiral Antilles's most loyal subordinates, with Davip commanding the Star Destroyer _Lusankya II_ for his faction's attack.

And to make sure that their enemies couldn't get help from outside the system, each and every New Rebel and Mando warship was outfitted with a discreet and specialized jamming system to block out any hypercomm calls that the Consortium-Remnant forces might make here in the duration of the resultant battle.

Focusing wholly on the Outer-Rim-facing shipyards, Fett piloted the _Slave I_ directly ahead, jinking and juking here and there to avoid the incoming lasers and projectiles fired by the Consortium-Remnant defenders, all the while as he fired his own loads of projectiles for the enemy. As if they were a hive mind, all the other Mandalorian ships, all of them near-invincible Bes'uliik starfighters whose hulls were composed of incredibly durable _beskar_ mined from the homeworld of Mandalore itself, also moved out of the way of the enemy's barrages as they, too, defended themselves with their own lethal forces. Of course, what barrages the Bes'uliiks did take were absorbed not only by their substantial shields, but also through that nigh-indestructible _beskar_ armor protecting them.

Thus, it really came as no surprise to anyone, not even the Consortium and Remnant starfighters and other war vessels participating in this battle, how the Mandos could tear through their enemies, not only with their lasers and missiles, but also with the bodies of their very own Bes'uliiks and continue on to blow up the shipyards ahead.

As for the Core-facing shipyards, they were also hailed with laserfire and barrages of proton torpedoes and concussion missiles from the New Rebellion starfighters, albeit at a less flowing pace given the venerable defenses put up by the Consortium-Remnant fighters there. But nonetheless, even with the losses that the New Rebels took in their own escapade in this area of the Bilbringi system, it was no less victorious than their Mandalorian allies, with more Consortium-Remnant forces destroyed than not, and the shipyards facing the Core all but irreparably ruined.

When all was said and done, the remnants of the New Rebels, which still ranged at around seventy-five percent, and the Mandos, which were still at the numbers they held when they first dropped out of hyperspace in the system, turned away from the broken pieces of their enemies and their shipyards in this system and returned to hyperspace without anymore fuss.

.

"Your Majesty," Head of State Reige said over the comm transmission with Allana in her throne room, "given the recent attack at Bilbringi, along in many other systems occupied by our combined forces, I believe we need to focus more on the New Rebellion and the Mandalorians than to commit any forces for the Unknown Regions just yet."

"An understandable sentiment," Allana stated as she sat on her throne, "but even you know better than I, Head of State Reige, that the Yuuzhan Vong are not to be dismissed as threats like this."

Reige shook his head. "I don't mean to drop the issue of stopping the Vong entirely, Your Highness, but what I'm saying is that the New Rebellion and the Mandalorians are a more pressing matter that we need to take care of. By no means will we drop our searches through the ranks of our armies or our worlds for Vong spies and infiltrators, but to launch any kind of force for the Unknown Regions now when we still have to contend with the more obvious and more dangerous problems would be most foolish, with all due respect. That, and the fact that Five Worlds Prime Minister Denjax Teppler already declared that the Confederation will be joining the New Rebellion against our governments, and I'm sure you can see why we can't just concentrate any portion of either of our fleets in a search for Zonama Sekot."

Allana nodded. "Still, the Vong cannot be ignored. So what do you suggest we do about them, other than continue to root out for those who have sneaked into our ranks?"

"I would recommend we ask the Chiss Ascendancy to locate Zonama Sekot and neutralize the Yuuzhan Vong as they see fit," Reige suggested. "They already occupy the Unknown Regions themselves, they'd spend less time looking for Zonama, they have less to defend overall, and they have no love for the Vong either. Even with the tenuous relations they hold with the rest of the galaxy, they won't hesitate to put the Vong down, if they have to."

"Very well, given your government's more stable ties with the Ascendancy, you contact the Chiss and let them know that the Yuuzhan Vong may be a threat, Head of State," Allana said. "Until then, we will continue to take care of the problems we already have, as you said." The Queen Mother then signaled to close the link.


	16. Chapter 16

On Zonama Sekot, Kunra and Macra bowed to the other in the open-topped training courtyard and brandished their training lightsabers before the spectators around them. The two apprentices then rushed toward each other to engage in their sparring contest when before they were suddenly blown back by several meters, landing in improvised yet graceful tumbles back over their shoulders to end up in predatory crouches. They, like the rest of the crowd ringing the courtyard, looked at what had blown them back, and saw that it was a bright white light that had manifested in the air. It disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared, and in its wake, it left a large organic-looking gate-like device on the ground.

In the center of this gate-like device was a female member of a species that the Yuuzhan Vong in the crowd were quite familiar with.

"Vergere!" Her name was called out by Jacen Solo, Onimi, Nom Anor, and Harrar. The rest of the crowd in the arena was silent so that they could see how this new development would unfold.

The Fosh woman looked over at the alternate versions of the people she once knew with genuine smiles as she stepped out of the gate-like device. "It is good to see you all again," she said to the four of them. "Or rather, it is good to meet you in this reality."

"You're from another reality," Jacen concluded.

"How astute you are in any dimension, Jacen," Vergere said with a hint of somehow playful condescension in her tone. "But I'm not just from any reality. I'm from the reality that Darth Plagueis took over when he conquered the Yuuzhan Vong Empire, and from which he is now using as a base to spread his influence throughout the rest of existence."

"We could always use another hand in defeating Plagueis," Jaden Korr said. "But first, what is that device there?" He pointed to the gate-like machine behind the Fosh.

"It is an RTD, or Reality Travel Device for short," Vergere explained. "Created by Master Shaper Nen Yim and her team of subordinate shapers back in the reality this was first created; or rather, this serves as the counterpart to bridge these two realities together, by my guess."

"By your guess?" Jaden asked.

"It is the only reasonable conclusion I can come up with," Vergere replied. "I'm not quite the expert on extradimensional travel, I admit."

"Then why didn't you bring any who were?" Jaden asked with obvious suspicion; he was quite familiar with this reality's Vergere and her reputation as a Sith spy trying to sow the seeds of corruption in Luke Skywalker's Jedi Order during the Yuuzhan Vong War. "Come to think of it, why are you the only one here?"

"Unfortunately, all of my other associates were just killed in battle against Plagueis's forces still residing back in the reality I came from," Vergere said. "Which leaves only me."

Just as Vergere finished explaining, another white light suddenly manifested within the RTD, and everyone in the arena turned to regard it. The light lasted for about five seconds before abruptly disappearing, like its predecessor, and leaving a new figure in its wake; that of a lithe Yuuzhan Vong female adorned in blood-smeared vonduun crab armor.

"Domina!" Onimi shouted as he pointed at the new arrival. He then swiftly turned and ran for the nearest exit from the courtyard, screaming in terror along the way, much to the consternation of everyone else present.

Jaden then looked at Jacen and Nom Anor with a bitter glare, which the duo returned with nervous smiles before they all returned their attention to Domina.

"He has the right idea, all of you should know," the new arrival said arrogantly as she leisurely stepped out of the RTD. "You should all either bow down before me, to signify the inevitability of Lord Darth Plagueis's reign upon all of reality, or flee before my very presence. It makes no difference to me or Lord Plagueis's Empire, for it will all be his anyway!"

"How about we give you this ultimatum," Jaden said as he and the other Jedi in the courtyard brandished their lightsabers. "Surrender now or prepare to die, Domina. There's no way you can take all of us on at the same time."

Domina gave the Grand Master of the Jedi a confident smirk. "Let's put that theory to the test then." She then let her amphistaff slither down her arm and let it hang as a whip while simultaneously activating the lightsaber once owned by Jacen Solo from the previous reality.

The Jedi all around then charged toward Domina, surrounding her completely, and the Force-sensitive Yuuzhan Vong working for Plagueis managed to counter each and every one of the strikes offered against her by her relatively inferior foes. But, given their greater numbers, she had no time to try and slaughter any of them as the duel proceeded, forcing her to constantly move here and there just to make sure she wasn't struck down by any of the apprentices or by Jaden or Jacen. In turn, Domina's foes had to make sure from striking down each other, for they saw that she was all-too formidable to take on one-on-one, so wearing her down before ganging up on her was the strategy silently agreed to by the Jedi dueling her.

In the end, though, not one of the Jedi were able to defeat her, but neither was she able to even graze any of them; it was Vergere who took advantage of the distraction she had in fighting off the Jedi, swiftly yanking the lightsaber out of her hand, sliding beneath her feet, and slicing the humming blade along an exposed section in her armor that sent the Yuuzhan Vong collapsing to the ground in pain. She ended up on all fours, and didn't get a chance to turn her head to look into the deep pools of Vergere's piercing eyes from behind before the Fosh quickly deactivated the lightsaber, hooked it to her belt, and tackled her to the ground. Vergere then cried out a few tears, dropped them in her palm, and placed them over Domina's mouth; a few seconds later, the Yuuzhan Vong beneath the Fosh fell asleep.

With Domina defeated, Vergere got up and looked back to the Jedi. "Jacen, you and, uh..." She pointed at Jaden.

"Grand Master Jaden Korr," Jaden introduced himself.

Vergere nodded. "Yes, Grand Master Korr. You and Jacen may now take Domina so you may question her about Darth Plagueis's plans."


	17. Chapter 17

Over the planet Sacorria, the New Rebellion fleet led by Admiral Wedge Antilles's Star Destroyer, the _Confederate Freedom_, didn't react to the appearance of a Confederation fleet dropping out of hyperspace from the direction of the Corellian system. Rather, it was the _Freedom_ that did the responding when the lead Confederate Star Destroyer, the _Justice Restorer_, hailed the New Rebellion fleet.

"Admiral Antilles." Turr Phennir's visage appeared as a three-dimensional blue-hued image on the bridge of Wedge's battleship. "It is good to see you again." Phennir's tone was controlled and measured, completely in line with official bureaucratic policy that extended even into the militant ranks. Yet one didn't need to be an expert strategist to know that deep down, Phennir still seethed at Wedge's abandonment of the Confederation to help the New Rebellion.

Alas, though, considering that the Confederation was now officially, but secretly (at least to both the Hapes Consortium and the Imperial Remnant), allied with the New Rebellion, Wedge knew enough to set aside all personal grievances with Phennir for the sake of the war against the Consortium-Remnant pact. So he nodded in response to his fellow admiral and said, "As it is you, Admiral Phennir." He reluctantly repressed the sigh he would have released over what he was about to say next. "Would you like to come aboard the _Confederate Freedom_ so that we may discuss what strategies we may have against our mutual enemies?"

"Of course, Admiral," Phennir replied. "I will meet you soon." He then cut the connection.

A few minutes later, Wedge saw through the _Freedom_'s viewport a shuttle discharge from the lead Star Destroyer in the Confederation fleet before heading for his own Destroyer. He took that as his cue to stand up and leave the bridge, assigning one of his lieutenants to man his station while he would meet Phennir.

One turbolift ride later, Wedge was in the _Freedom_'s hangar bay just in time for the arrival of the shuttle bearing Phennir. After the shuttle cycled down, the landing ramp was lowered, and the Confederate admiral exited the small ship to shake hands with his fellow colleague; the false smiles they gave each other couldn't have been more forced if their superiors had stuck electric prods up their asses just to maintain diplomacy. They exchanged a few more pleasantries before turning at Wedge's lead for the turbolift that would take them down to the _Freedom_'s conference room.

.

In the Unknown Regions, orbiting the Chiss capital planet of Csilla, an Ascendancy fleet was assembling for their search for the living world of Zonama Sekot. And in his own Star Destroyer, the _Militant Explorer_, General Soontir Fel was in his office overseeing last minute checks on his datapad for the fleet's departure from the system in two hours. His assessment was soon cut short when there was a knock on his door.

"Come," he said as he set his datapad down on his desk to stand up for whoever stopped by, ready to salute them.

He didn't expect his own daughter, Wynssa, to come in wearing a private trooper's uniform and carrying herself as an experienced soldier. She stopped just at the other side of his desk and saluted her father, which he returned professionally.

"At ease, Private," he said. He then sat back down while she remained standing. "What is it that you wished to see me about?" He already had a pretty good idea of what she wanted, but he had to ask anyway.

"General Fel, I request permission to join one of the starfighter crews for the mission to Zonama Sekot," Wyn answered predictably.

"Permission denied," Soontir replied sternly and just as predictably.

Wyn's lips thinned in determination. "Sir, if you look at my records from the Academy-"

"I know full well of your record from the Academy, Private Fel," Soontir interrupted. "I am all too aware of your outstanding grades in everything you took, just as every Chiss is expected to receive for their efforts in everything they take."

"So why can I not join the effort against the Yuuzhan Vong, sir?"

"Because it is an all-too dangerous mission for an inexperienced soldier to take," Soontir argued, knowing full well that his argument was all too flimsy even to his own ears. All it would take for Wyn to know that there were hundreds of other Ascendancy privates and cadets joining the search for Zonama was to look at the public census, and all it would take for Wyn to defeat her father in this argument was merely to point that fact out. "Someone of your caliber is better off dealing with pirates and smugglers stalking the fringes of our borders rather than going head-on against one of the most dangerous enemies this galaxy has ever known."

Wyn made an all-too visible effort to repress the irritated sigh she felt. "Sir, with all due respect, I had already spoken to Admiral Nuruodo, and she had supported my efforts to join this mission. She told me that all I needed was your permission."

"And I am denying you that permission, Private Fel," Soontir replied a little too firmly. "You are not come on this mission, no matter what support you may have from any of the higher-ranking officers in this military, and that is final."

"Even with all of my fellow graduates from the Academy going on this mission, even though their mettle has not yet been tested by the likes of criminals running the gambit of our territory?" Wyn retorted in a tone that made it sound like she was actually asking a question.

_Damn_, Soontir thought even as he kept his strict bearing alive. _Now what do I do?_ "I said my decision was final, Private Fel." His tone was less sure now, but no less authoritative.

This time, Wyn couldn't help but let a letdown sigh escape. From there, her military composure disappeared entirely. "C'mon, Dad, let me join this fleet! Please!"

"If you cannot maintain military composure even in the least stressful of times, Private Fel, you have no place in this military, no matter what your Academy record might say otherwise," Soontir countered smartly.

"Then you'd better hope Admiral Nuruodo agrees with you, General," Wyn almost spat. She then turned and left, regaining her militant composure on the way out.


	18. Chapter 18

By the time Onimi finished his interrogation of Domina, Jacen and Jaden looked at each other in horror.

"This is much worse than I thought," Jaden said soberly. "I knew Plagueis had some kind of grand scheme to take over reality again, but this..."

"And with Yuuzhan Vong spies being figured out, the Hapes Consortium and the Imperial Remnant will come after Zonama to wipe out all the Yuuzhan Vong here," Jacen concluded.

Domina let out a gurgled chuckle, attracting the attention of the three men in the bedroom. "Oh, you don't have to worry about either of those governments," she told them, her evil smile not cracking through the pain Onimi caused her. "But you will have to deal with something a lot closer to home."

Before any of them could ask her what she meant, all of their danger senses tingled. Jacen then rushed to the bedroom's window and pushed the curtain there past him so he could see what was going on.

Silhouetted against the clear day sky of Zonama were an entire fleet of Chiss Star Destroyers heading for the planet, most likely to enter low orbit. Even at the distance they still had from the planet, Jacen could make out tiny shapes, clawcraft starfighters, that were coming out to engage the planet. In turn, factories all across Zonama began spewing out nimble organic starfighters of their own, piloted by Ferroans and Yuuzhan Vong who could be trusted not to fall back on their old ways.

"You must leave," Danni Quee's trance-like voice came from the door leading out of the bedroom. Once Jacen, Jaden, and Onimi all turned to regard her at the exit, with Nom Anor and the Jedi apprentices behind her out in the hallway, she continued, maintaining her distant tone, "Take your Jedi with you, Master Korr. Jacen, take Onimi and Nom Anor with you and follow the Jedi off of Zonama, out of the Unknown Regions, and into known space. Darth Plagueis must be stopped at all costs."

While Onimi, Jaden, and the others looked at Danni confused, Jacen, who knew that he was talking to Sekot, only looked back at the Magister with worry. "But what about you?"

"I can defend myself," Danni-Sekot replied just as ground cannons, raised from beneath Zonama's surface, exposed themselves to spout fiery projectiles to the enemy starfighters beginning to enter the atmosphere, yet also being careful not to fire against the Sekotan fighters already in the air. "And even if I am destroyed, the Force will live on. Go, save yourselves, and stop Plagueis once and for all, by any means necessary, even if it means resorting to the dark side of the Force itself."

Before anyone could object to what Danni-Sekot said about possibly using the dark side, Onimi asked, "Then what do we do with her?" He indicated the heavily-breathing Domina still on the bed, who looked back at this version of her late ex-boyfriend with pure malice.

"I do not see her surviving the near future," Sekot proclaimed. "And because she is too dangerous to keep alive any longer, you may do with her what you will."

But before Onimi could do anything, Domina, using what little room either of her hands had in the restraints, suddenly flung an acidic fluid at this version of her ex-lover.

"Look out!" Jacen shouted as he tackled Onimi out of the way, getting splashed by the acid in the process. He then fell to the floor, writhing in pain, even though his skin didn't burn.

Nonetheless, without hesitation, Onimi, after leaping up from the floor, turned back and bit his giant fang into the side of Domina's neck, sending forth a lethal toxin that ended her life immediately. He then bent down and looked over Jacen.

"What did she just do to you?" Jaden asked as he bent down next to Onimi.

"I managed to neutralize the effects of the acid before it could melt me down," Jacen said as he was helped up. "It seemed as if Domina had been storing up some of Onimi's chemicals to use against him once she was ready." He then looked over at Domina's corpse, and he and Jaden looked over at Onimi in mild shock.

"Hey, you heard her," he defended himself as he passively waved in Danni's direction.

"Now all of you," Danni-Sekot said urgently. "Go."

"Everyone, make hold hands, I'm gonna teleport us outta here and into the spaceport," Jacen said just as another rumble shook the grashal they were all in.

After everyone formed a loose circle, Jacen concentrated...

And found that he couldn't do it.

"What's wrong?" Onimi asked.

"I think the acid must've affected my powers somehow," Jacen said. "We don't have time to determine how, we just have to get over to the spaceport the old-fashioned way."

Reluctantly, Jacen and Jaden, with a more willing Onimi in tow, took to leaving the bedroom, past Danni, and they began herding Nom Anor and the Jedi apprentices down the hall. As the enemy bombardment got louder and more powerful, causing some of the Jedi to actually collapse to the floor before recollecting themselves, the group headed down the stairs and to the ground floor to leave.

Not much later, they were all out of the house, and they were then blown forward with a few dozen charric lasers struck the grashal they were just in. They landed prone to the ground and turned to their backs to briefly observe the wreckage; it was only by looking up, past the roof, where they found a floating Danni Quee, who was hovering back down to join the group at a rapid pace.

Before Danni joined them, the group was already up and headed to the spaceport in the distance, where Peb Liko's yacht and Team Jacen's Imperial shuttle were resting. The spaceport itself appeared to be more heavily defended than anything here in La'okio, with cannon turrets circling the perimeter of the port, aiding the planet's own organic fighters in shooting down Chiss clawcraft. To defend itself against the bombardment that was placed with deadly precision by the Star Destroyers still up in orbit, an ionic field would appear to dissipate the charric strikes; some of the Jedi, and Nom Anor, couldn't help but notice that since the ionic field wasn't weakening, it was quite obvious that Sekot made it near-invincible just to make sure the group could get to their ships.

Along the way, Jacen couldn't help but notice one of the clawcraft, whose rear end was trailing frame from enemy fire as it whirled down to the ground a good way away from the group, had Wynssa Fel as the pilot. She struggled vainly against the controls, but to no avail as it plummeted. So she managed to press a button on her console, blowing out the canopy and allowing her to parachute out of the dying starfighter.

Jacen spent no more time paying attention to Wyn Fel as he continued trotting along with the group.

After they ran several klicks, avoiding strafing runs by clawcraft, stray barrages from friendly and enemy fire, and debris and plummeting starfighters along the way, the group had finally arrived at the spaceport. And not only did the entrance part before Jacen and Jaden, who led the group, but an entire section of the wall opened before them, enough to allow every member of the group inside at once. A few Yuuzhan Vong and Ferroans who weren't Jedi, or participating in the battle, managed to rush in behind the group to seek safety from the invasion that Zonama was suffering.

Danni and those people who joined the group just in time split off and headed for a corner of the port, which the Magister used the Force to open up before any of them got there. Once she stood over it, she began herding the people inside while Team Jacen and the Jedi headed to their respective ships.

Once Danni and the people who arrived disappeared down into the cavern, where they could weather the Chiss attack, Team Jacen's shuttle and Peb Liko's yacht were primed and powered up. In response, the roof above opened, and the ships raced out, dodging and weaving around Chiss fire along the way. It wasn't long before they were joined by Sekotan fighters who either shot down their enemies or had split off from the dogfights they were engaged in to defend the hope that Sekot had in defeating Darth Plagueis.

A few minutes later, in spite of all the losses they endured from the starfighters escorting them up into the sky, Team Jacen's shuttle and Peb's yacht had breached the atmosphere, which was even more harrying in terms of avoiding charric fire and other deadly obstacles, especially now that the two ships were alone.

In Team Jacen's shuttle, as Jacen piloted the ship expertly through and around enemy blasts, he asked, "Onimi, turn on the nuclear nanospider generator!"

Onimi quickly looked on the console for the weapons banks, but then, suddenly, a great _thump!_ rocked the ship from beneath. The deformed Yuuzhan Vong, after a moment of looking at the consoles for a brief update, then declared, "The nanospider generator isn't working anymore!"

"What?!" Jacen yelped.

"It's damaged!" Onimi elaborated.

"Damn it!" Jacen cursed.

But in spite of the lack of nanospiders, both Team Jacen's ship and Peb's yacht managed to use the battle up and around Zonama to their advantage as a distraction to the Chiss to make it past the blockade and begin locking in coordinates for hyperspace.

.

On the bridge of the _Militant Explorer_, General Soontir Fel, sitting in his command chair, asked one of the female Chiss manning the one of the consoles in front of him, "Lieutenant, is the weapon ready?" He was still skeptical that this weapon would work; after all, it wasn't even tested, yet the scientists that created this thing were confident that it would work. By the orders of his superiors, Fel really had no choice but to indulge them, especially if it meant a quick victory against the living world of Zonama Sekot.

He only wished it didn't take so long to power.

A moment after he demanded the nameless weapon's status update, following the lieutenant's look at her console, she looked back at the general and announced, "It is ready, sir."

Fel nodded. "Call out the remaining clawcraft, and after that, you may fire when ready."

The lieutenant returned the nod, turned back to her station, and began transmitting the signal indicating that all remaining Chiss in the air should return to space. A few minutes after the remaining clawcraft in Zonama's atmosphere, the _Militant Explorer_'s lieutenant, without the slightest bit of hesitation on her part, pushed the button that initiated the quick procedure that would follow.

.

Groggily, Wyn woke up from the knockout she went through; her parachute had suffered two tears from stray lasers that sent her hurtling the rest of the way down to the ground. She survived only because she fell roughly ten feet before entering the canopy of a boras forest and crashing through a few branches before hitting the ground unconscious.

Now that she was awake, she couldn't help but look up to the sky to see the lead Star Destroyer, her father's _Militant Explorer_, begin charging up the weapon. No doubt her fellow Chiss pilots would think her dead at this point.

"No," she muttered to herself worriedly. She quickly reached into one of her pockets to take out her personal comm unit, only to find that it was destroyed.

Wyn could only look back up helplessly as her father would unknowingly kill her for disobeying his orders, just by secretly coming here.

.

Before either Team Jacen's shuttle or Peb's yacht jumped into hyperspace, both parties couldn't help but notice on their rear sensors the horror that had occurred.

The lead Chiss Star Destroyer fired some kind of red laser for Zonama that, within seconds, began turning the entire planet from lush green to dead brown.

Within in that span of time, every Force-sensitive on both ships clasped at whatever body parts hurt the most from the resultant wave of pain that echoed through their Force-senses, signifying the ends of billions of people's lives on Zonama in one instant; even if most of those lives were of Force-absent Yuuzhan Vong, the loss of life was still to great not to be noticed. Five seconds later, the Sekotan ships that remained in orbit also withered out quickly, the failing life support systems also depriving their pilots of oxygen and killing them, too.

Aboard the Imperial shuttle, Nom Anor, the only one in the group leaving to confront Darth Plagueis, quickly pushed past the pained forms of Jacen and Onimi and engaged the hyperdrive to launch the shuttle out of the solar system.

Unfortunately, those aboard Peb's yacht weren't so lucky; the luxurious vessel was caught in a tractor beam by one of the Ascendancy's rearmost Star Destroyers and was being pulled in towards its hangar bay. Once Peb, who piloted the ship, and Jaden, who sat in as his copilot, had recovered from the pain they felt, they first looked at their sensors, then at each other in horror once they knew that, with the death of Zonama Sekot, it was too late to do anything for themselves.


	19. Chapter 19

By the time Onimi finished his interrogation of Domina, Jacen and Jaden looked at each other in horror.

"This is much worse than I thought," Jaden said soberly. "I knew Plagueis had some kind of grand scheme to take over reality again, but this..."

"And with Yuuzhan Vong spies being figured out, the Hapes Consortium and the Imperial Remnant will come after Zonama to wipe out all the Yuuzhan Vong here," Jacen concluded.

Domina let out a gurgled chuckle, attracting the attention of the three men in the bedroom. "Oh, you don't have to worry about either of those governments," she told them, her evil smile not cracking through the pain Onimi caused her. "But you will have to deal with something a lot closer to home."

Before any of them could ask her what she meant, all of their danger senses tingled. Jacen then rushed to the bedroom's window and pushed the curtain there past him so he could see what was going on.

Silhouetted against the clear day sky of Zonama were an entire fleet of Chiss Star Destroyers heading for the planet, most likely to enter low orbit. Even at the distance they still had from the planet, Jacen could make out tiny shapes, clawcraft starfighters, that were coming out to engage the planet. In turn, factories all across Zonama began spewing out nimble organic starfighters of their own, piloted by Ferroans and Yuuzhan Vong who could be trusted not to fall back on their old ways.

"You must leave," Danni Quee's trance-like voice came from the door leading out of the bedroom. Once Jacen, Jaden, and Onimi all turned to regard her at the exit, with Nom Anor and the Jedi apprentices behind her out in the hallway, she continued, maintaining her distant tone, "Take your Jedi with you, Master Korr. Jacen, take Onimi and Nom Anor with you and follow the Jedi off of Zonama, out of the Unknown Regions, and into known space. Darth Plagueis must be stopped at all costs."

While Onimi, Jaden, and the others looked at Danni confused, Jacen, who knew that he was talking to Sekot, only looked back at the Magister with worry. "But what about you?"

"I can defend myself," Danni-Sekot replied just as ground cannons, raised from beneath Zonama's surface, exposed themselves to spout fiery projectiles to the enemy starfighters beginning to enter the atmosphere, yet also being careful not to fire against the Sekotan fighters already in the air. "And even if I am destroyed, the Force will live on. Go, save yourselves, and stop Plagueis once and for all, by any means necessary, even if it means resorting to the dark side of the Force itself."

Before anyone could object to what Danni-Sekot said about possibly using the dark side, Onimi asked, "Then what do we do with her?" He indicated the heavily-breathing Domina still on the bed, who looked back at this version of her late ex-boyfriend with pure malice.

"I do not see her surviving the near future," Sekot proclaimed. "And because she is too dangerous to keep alive any longer, you may do with her what you will."

But before Onimi could do anything, Domina, using what little room either of her hands had in the restraints, suddenly flung an acidic fluid at this version of her ex-lover.

"Look out!" Jacen shouted as he tackled Onimi out of the way, getting splashed by the acid in the process. He then fell to the floor, writhing in pain, even though his skin didn't burn.

Nonetheless, without hesitation, Onimi, after leaping up from the floor, turned back and bit his giant fang into the side of Domina's neck, sending forth a lethal toxin that ended her life immediately. He then bent down and looked over Jacen.

"What did she just do to you?" Jaden asked as he bent down next to Onimi.

"I managed to neutralize the effects of the acid before it could melt me down," Jacen said as he was helped up. "It seemed as if Domina had been storing up some of Onimi's chemicals to use against him once she was ready." He then looked over at Domina's corpse, and he and Jaden looked over at Onimi in mild shock.

"Hey, you heard her," he defended himself as he passively waved in Danni's direction.

"Now all of you," Danni-Sekot said urgently. "Go."

"Everyone, make hold hands, I'm gonna teleport us outta here and into the spaceport," Jacen said just as another rumble shook the grashal they were all in.

After everyone formed a loose circle, Jacen concentrated...

And found that he couldn't do it.

"What's wrong?" Onimi asked.

"I think the acid must've affected my powers somehow," Jacen said. "We don't have time to determine how, we just have to get over to the spaceport the old-fashioned way."

Reluctantly, Jacen and Jaden, with a more willing Onimi in tow, took to leaving the bedroom, past Danni, and they began herding Nom Anor and the Jedi apprentices down the hall. As the enemy bombardment got louder and more powerful, causing some of the Jedi to actually collapse to the floor before recollecting themselves, the group headed down the stairs and to the ground floor to leave.

Not much later, they were all out of the house, and they were then blown forward with a few dozen charric lasers struck the grashal they were just in. They landed prone to the ground and turned to their backs to briefly observe the wreckage; it was only by looking up, past the roof, where they found a floating Danni Quee, who was hovering back down to join the group at a rapid pace.

Before Danni joined them, the group was already up and headed to the spaceport in the distance, where Peb Liko's yacht and Team Jacen's Imperial shuttle were resting. The spaceport itself appeared to be more heavily defended than anything here in La'okio, with cannon turrets circling the perimeter of the port, aiding the planet's own organic fighters in shooting down Chiss clawcraft. To defend itself against the bombardment that was placed with deadly precision by the Star Destroyers still up in orbit, an ionic field would appear to dissipate the charric strikes; some of the Jedi, and Nom Anor, couldn't help but notice that since the ionic field wasn't weakening, it was quite obvious that Sekot made it near-invincible just to make sure the group could get to their ships.

Along the way, Jacen couldn't help but notice one of the clawcraft, whose rear end was trailing frame from enemy fire as it whirled down to the ground a good way away from the group, had Wynssa Fel as the pilot. She struggled vainly against the controls, but to no avail as it plummeted. So she managed to press a button on her console, blowing out the canopy and allowing her to parachute out of the dying starfighter.

Jacen spent no more time paying attention to Wyn Fel as he continued trotting along with the group.

After they ran several klicks, avoiding strafing runs by clawcraft, stray barrages from friendly and enemy fire, and debris and plummeting starfighters along the way, the group had finally arrived at the spaceport. And not only did the entrance part before Jacen and Jaden, who led the group, but an entire section of the wall opened before them, enough to allow every member of the group inside at once. A few Yuuzhan Vong and Ferroans who weren't Jedi, or participating in the battle, managed to rush in behind the group to seek safety from the invasion that Zonama was suffering.

Danni and those people who joined the group just in time split off and headed for a corner of the port, which the Magister used the Force to open up before any of them got there. Once she stood over it, she began herding the people inside while Team Jacen and the Jedi headed to their respective ships.

Once Danni and the people who arrived disappeared down into the cavern, where they could weather the Chiss attack, Team Jacen's shuttle and Peb Liko's yacht were primed and powered up. In response, the roof above opened, and the ships raced out, dodging and weaving around Chiss fire along the way. It wasn't long before they were joined by Sekotan fighters who either shot down their enemies or had split off from the dogfights they were engaged in to defend the hope that Sekot had in defeating Darth Plagueis.

A few minutes later, in spite of all the losses they endured from the starfighters escorting them up into the sky, Team Jacen's shuttle and Peb's yacht had breached the atmosphere, which was even more harrying in terms of avoiding charric fire and other deadly obstacles, especially now that the two ships were alone.

In Team Jacen's shuttle, as Jacen piloted the ship expertly through and around enemy blasts, he asked, "Onimi, do we have any of Cilghal's nuclear nanospiders?"

Onimi quickly looked on the console for the weapons banks, and then declared, "We don't have anymore!"

"Damn!" Jacen cursed. "I can't believe we forgot to load on those. I can only imagine Cilghal having a field day on us for forgetting her nanospiders!"

In spite of the lack of nanospiders, both Team Jacen's ship and Peb's yacht managed to use the battle up and around Zonama to their advantage as a distraction to the Chiss to make it past the blockade and begin locking in coordinates for hyperspace.

.

On the bridge of the _Militant Explorer_, General Soontir Fel, sitting in his command chair, asked one of the female Chiss manning the one of the consoles in front of him, "Lieutenant, is the weapon ready?" He was still skeptical that this weapon would work; after all, it wasn't even tested, yet the scientists that created this thing were confident that it would work. By the orders of his superiors, Fel really had no choice but to indulge them, especially if it meant a quick victory against the living world of Zonama Sekot.

He only wished it didn't take so long to power.

A moment after he demanded the nameless weapon's status update, following the lieutenant's look at her console, she looked back at the general and announced, "It is ready, sir."

Fel nodded. "Call out the remaining clawcraft, and after that, you may fire when ready."

The lieutenant returned the nod, turned back to her station, and began transmitting the signal indicating that all remaining Chiss in the air should return to space. A few minutes after the remaining clawcraft in Zonama's atmosphere, the _Militant Explorer_'s lieutenant, without the slightest bit of hesitation on her part, pushed the button that initiated the quick procedure that would follow.

.

Groggily, Wyn woke up from the knockout she went through; her parachute had suffered two tears from stray lasers that sent her hurtling the rest of the way down to the ground. She survived only because she fell roughly ten feet before entering the canopy of a boras forest and crashing through a few branches before hitting the ground unconscious.

Now that she was awake, she couldn't help but look up to the sky to see the lead Star Destroyer, her father's _Militant Explorer_, begin charging up the weapon. No doubt her fellow Chiss pilots would think her dead at this point.

"No," she muttered to herself worriedly. She quickly reached into one of her pockets to take out her personal comm unit, only to find that it was destroyed.

Wyn could only look back up helplessly as her father would unknowingly kill her for disobeying his orders, just by secretly coming here.

.

Before either Team Jacen's shuttle or Peb's yacht jumped into hyperspace, both parties couldn't help but notice on their rear sensors the horror that had occurred.

The lead Chiss Star Destroyer fired some kind of red laser for Zonama that, within seconds, began turning the entire planet from lush green to dead brown.

Within in that span of time, every Force-sensitive on both ships clasped at whatever body parts hurt the most from the resultant wave of pain that echoed through their Force-senses, signifying the ends of billions of people's lives on Zonama in one instant; even if most of those lives were of Force-absent Yuuzhan Vong, the loss of life was still to great not to be noticed. Five seconds later, the Sekotan ships that remained in orbit also withered out quickly, the failing life support systems also depriving their pilots of oxygen and killing them, too.

Aboard the Imperial shuttle, Nom Anor, the only one in the group leaving to confront Darth Plagueis, quickly pushed past the pained forms of Jacen and Onimi and engaged the hyperdrive to launch the shuttle out of the solar system.

Unfortunately, those aboard Peb's yacht weren't so lucky; the luxurious vessel was caught in a tractor beam by one of the Ascendancy's rearmost Star Destroyers and was being pulled in towards its hangar bay. Once Peb, who piloted the ship, and Jaden, who sat in as his copilot, had recovered from the pain they felt, they first looked at their sensors, then at each other in horror once they knew that, with the death of Zonama Sekot, it was too late to do anything for themselves.


	20. Chapter 20

When Team Jacen's Imperial shuttle dropped out of hyperspace a bare few minutes following the destruction of Zonama Sekot, the ship had ended up in an uninhabited system with seven moonless planets and one distant yellow star.

By now, Jacen and Onimi had recovered from the pain they experienced through the Force from the loss of so many lives on and over Zonama. And while Onimi sat back in the copilot seat in relief of the pain dissipating entirely from his body, Jacen, in the pilot seat, had dropped the ship out of hyperspace and looked up at Nom Anor with anger. The one-eyed Yuuzhan Vong, in turn, was standing up and facing down his human friend with a neutral expression.

"What the hell did you do that for?!" Jacen nearly yelled. "We left behind the Jedi to the Chiss! We have to go back for them!"

"We're not going back for them," Onimi said. "It's too dangerous; they have to help themselves. We gotta keep on going."

"And we have to keep on going right now," Nom Anor added. "No doubt the Chiss will track us from our hyperspace route. We need to leave this system as soon as possible."

"We're not continuing on without the Jedi!" Jacen insisted. "You heard Sekot, after all. Both the three of us and Korr and his apprentices have to stand together to defeat Plagueis. Without them, we won't stand a chance against that Si-" Jacen then gasped in pain before clutching at his chest with both hands.

"Jacen, what's wrong?" Nom Anor asked as he and Onimi leaned over the human.

"I don't know," Jacen croaked. "But... the pain... it's excruciating!"

Before anyone could do anything for Jacen, Onimi and Nom Anor looked over to the ship's console to find one of the sensors telling them that a Chiss Star Destroyer had dropped out of hyperspace behind them.

The next thing they knew, the shuttle made a little bump forward in space before it was beginning to slowly back away in the direction of the Star Destroyer; they were caught in a tractor beam now. Then the comm console pinged with a hail from the other ship.

"Take him to the medbay," Onimi said as he gathered Jacen up in his arms and handed him off to Nom Anor. "And give him at least three doses of sedatives. I'm gonna get us outta this." The deformed Yuuzhan Vong then sat himself in the pilot seat while his one-eyed counterpart hurried back to the shuttle's medbay with a moaning Jacen in his arms.

Now taking over piloting for his human friend, Onimi turned off the ping indicating the Chiss' hail - they'd most likely tell him not to resist when they boarded Team Jacen's ship and arrest the three of them for questioning - before he pressed another button. The result came in the form of a concussion missile released from the shuttle's rear end, and which went sailing for the Star Destroyer at a much faster rate than it would have gone if it weren't for the tractor beam.

Understandably, and predictably, the tractor beam was shut off, freeing both the shuttle and the concussion missile from its grip, and one of the Star Destroyer's turrets began churning out lasers to destroy the missile before it could cause any considerable damage to its host. Sure enough, the missile was destroyed after three strikes, but it still created a blast strong enough to envelop the forward section of the ship. And even though the Star Destroyer's impressive shields were able to absorb the brief but powerful fire, the shock wave that rode along with the blast still threw the massive vessel off course, sending it so that its rear section began pointing down relative to its position.

At the same time, Onimi, knowing that if he had the shuttle jump into hyperspace the Star Destroyer would simply follow, used the distraction that the explosion provided by pressing one of the console buttons that funneled out a blue mist in the shuttle's wake for a few seconds. When those seconds came to their end, the mist dissipated, and with a few more button presses on Onimi's part, the ship commenced a microjump further into the system so that it was now in the orbits of the four innermost planets.

That way, by the time that the Star Destroyer had righted itself so that its forward section was pointing where Team Jacen's shuttle was prior to its microjump, none of their sensors could tell them that their fleeing charge had hidden itself on the sun-facing side of the fourth planet in the system.

Instead, the lieutenant manning the navigation console aboard the Destroyer informed the captain that the Imperial shuttle had jumped into hyperspace, her sensors fooled by the blue mist, which pointed directly to some false coordinates. After the captain ordered the lieutenant to track the hyperspace coordinates, and after that order was fulfilled, the giant vessel leaped into hyperspace, leaving the system entirely.

A few seconds later, the Star Destroyer came right of hyperspace to find itself only a few thousand miles away from the surface of a star over in the next system. And with no way to resist the powerful gravitational forces of the star, the crew of the Destroyer stood no chance of saving their doomed ship from the fate of vaporization over the sun's atmosphere, nor could they save themselves even if they had time to get to escape pods.

.

Aboard Team Jacen's ship, Onimi, having set the vessel down on the fourth planet's surface, immediately propped himself out of the pilot seat and headed back to the medbay to check up on Jacen. He stopped dead in his tracks at the entrance to find a solemn-looking Nom Anor standing over an unconscious Jacen, whose body lay on top of the medcot there. The only way Onimi knew that Jacen was still alive wasn't through the shallow breathing coming from the human, but through his dying presence in the Force.

Without wasting anymore time, Onimi rushed over to his unconscious friend, leaned down next to him, laid his hands over his face, closed his eyes, and began concentrating.


	21. Chapter 21

As Onimi focused, his palms, which he laid on Jacen's forehead, began secreting thousands of probe cells through the human's head to quickly travel throughout his body in the span of five seconds. In those precious few seconds, the probe cells, which Onimi maintained contact with via the Force, managed to discern what type of affliction Jacen was suffering and sent the raw biochemical data back into Onimi's mind for him to process, which took another five seconds.

Satisfied with what he now knew, the deformed Yuuzhan Vong released his contact with the probe cells, which were protected from what Jacen was suffering from thanks to individual micro-Force bubbles surrounding each of them. He could still feel their deaths as they were enveloped from the cells killing Jacen from the inside, but he didn't let that distract him as he began manufacturing the wave of cells he hoped would counter the affliction.

From what Onimi knew, these degenerative cells were the result of the fluid Domina flung at Jacen and his subsequent counteraction against it, which not only neutralized his special powers - such as his ability to teleport - but which would begin wasting away his innards several minutes after the human made contact with the fluid. So, without further ado, Onimi centered himself and began manufacturing the chemicals necessary to counteract whatever was killing his friend.

Once those chemicals were concocted in his body, which took all of ten seconds, Onimi released them in a coursing wave.

The collective of cells came first from the pit of Onimi's stomach to channel through his arms to then pour out through his palms. As soon as the fluids of chemicals were out of Onimi's body, they were absorbed through Jacen's head to envelop his whole body in two seconds.

But that wasn't the end of it, Onimi knew. He maintained his contact with the chemicals he just created to feel how they progressed in their first several microseconds of entering Jacen's body. His hopes had lifted as soon as he felt the invading chemicals ravage the degenerative cells wherever they ate at the human's innards; but after five seconds, Onimi could sense Domina's adopted chemicals begin to fight back, quickly adapting in only three seconds, which Onimi could assume was a generation to these cells, and hence, a war resulted for the fate of Jacen Solo as soon as the deformed Yuuzhan Vong felt his helpful cells begin to die unnaturally.

So Onimi began adding backup to his fighting chemicals, pouring more and more of his concoctions into Jacen's system while simultaneously adapting them to counter the degenerative chemicals' unbelievable adaptability.

Jacen's body had become a war zone; it was now up to Onimi to bring it peace, and he would not let that peace be death.

From the outside of this war of microorganisms raging inside Jacen's body, Nom Anor looked on in concern as he watched Onimi visibly struggle to save his friend. The deformed Yuuzhan Vong was now sweating profusely in every sweat gland on his body, soaking his garments such that Nom Anor dreaded to wash them when the time came, no matter what the outcome of this literal internal war.

Half a minute soon passed, and several generations of cells had already come and gone, multiplied and fought for the dominion of Jacen's body, whether it'd be living or dead, until the point had been reached that the degenerative cells decided not to fend for the territory they found inside the human.

Instead, they decided to eliminate the source of their generations-long enemies.

The cells that proved to be Domina's legacy here began fighting past Onimi's helpful toxins not for survival this time, but for the sake of the descendants that they could never think about to begin with. And soon, after six seconds, they rushed in a collective wave from all around Jacen's body to splash up and out through the pores and holes of his face, enveloping Onimi instantly.

The deformed Yuuzhan Vong naturally fell to the deck of the medbay, screaming in pain as Nom Anor watched helplessly, not knowing what to do or how to aid his Force-sensitive counterpart. But nevertheless, even as he suffered on the floor, Onimi's disgusting face was still set in determination, fighting for himself now as he continued to produce those helpful toxins inside his own body.

"Nommy!" Onimi yelled in pain, never letting up in his fight against Domina's legacy. "How... is... Jacen?!"

Nom Anor hesitated, confused for a moment, before shaking his head and looking back over to the human. A mere second later, he saw Jacen move faintly, and his breathing soon took on a healthier note, with each second getting more progressive until he was breathing like a normal unconscious human.

Smiling, Nom Anor looked back down at his suffering friend and proclaimed, "He's getting better! Those cells you gave him... they must be restoring him!"

Onimi grinned, though it was riddled in pain from the suffering he was enduring. "Good. That's... that's all I needed... to know." Then he closed his eyes and allowed himself to collapse into a puddle of goo on the deck.

Nom Anor gasped in shock as he saw what was left of Onimi; he could identify what appeared to be hundreds of massive purple particles leaping across the black soup that pooled on the floor, which sizzled and burned away into nothingness in the air thanks to the blackness there. Once all those purple particles - which Nom Anor had no doubt were the cells that had been killing Jacen, and which forced Onimi to let go of his own life - died out, so, too, did the black soup faze away from reality, as if it were never there to begin with.

Jacen then woke up with a startled gasp and looked over at Nom Anor. "Where is he?" the human asked with a worried tone.

Nom Anor only looked back with a grief-stricken face at Jacen, shaking his head wordlessly.

At that, Jacen, his face suddenly becoming blank, propped himself out of bed, walked over to where Onimi once was, let himself buckle to his knees, and he began crying.


	22. Chapter 22

For the sixth time in what Rhal thought to be in the span of two days, he had woken up; only this time, he wasn't immediately drugged again via syringe in the side of the neck.

Even though he didn't know a thing about him or her, Rhal had come to hate that red-armored Mandalorian who was always in that dark cargo space with him the previous five times. Rhal knew that it was a cargo space because of the plethora of boxes that he could make out in the dim surroundings then.

Here, though, Rhal was now tied in a steel chair by a silvery metallic cable, with a fluorescent light over his head providing the only illumination in the room that he couldn't quiet identify in the pitch black around him.

A typical, cliched setup for an interrogation, but an effective one most of the time; Rhal knew that it even worked on Mandalorians who betrayed their Mandalores in their societies' deep history. And he had a feeling that, in spite of what his ego would tell him in the back of his mind, this method would work on him in the end.

While he figured that he couldn't see the room around him anyway, he knew that the fact that his vision was blurry still had something to do with it. Being in a cargo space from his paradise to wherever this was now, most of the time having dreamless sleeps that contained only blackness, would probably do that to anyone part of a species that relied on substantial amounts of light to aid their vision, such as humans like Rhal.

After a while, however, as his sight cleared up, albeit such that he began wincing against the brightness overhead, he finally saw a distinct shape in the dark, very similar to the one who constantly drugged him in that cargo space. Rhal got his confirmation as soon as the figure stepped into the light, revealing itself - as Rhal couldn't tell if it were a man or woman beneath that armor - as that red-painted Mando.

"If you tell us that Teppler hired you out to assassinate Delpin, Rhal," the disguised Mandalorian said in the deep male voice of a macho human, "we'll let you and your wife go."

Rhal repressed the urge to raise an eyebrow in remembrance; he hadn't even thought about Lujura since he woke up. He didn't even take notice of his wife's absence while he was in that cargo space with this Mandalorian.

"Well, Rhal, what do you say?" the interrogator asked, making it sound like a suggestion rather than the demand it really was.

"I owe nothing more to Teppler," Rhal admitted. "I just need to know that you won't take away any of the belongings he gave my wife and me."

"You can keep your luxuries, _aruetii_," the Mando spat. "Just give us the verbal confirmation that we need, and you'll be on your way."

In spite of himself, Rhal couldn't help but wince at being called an _aruetii_. While he and Lujura both knew it was true for each of them, considering that they turned their backs on their society when they retired as non-Mandalorians, it somehow still stung Rhal's sleazy sellout soul.

And yet, he had nothing to lose and everything to gain back in complying.

"Alright," Rhal acquiesced. "Corellian Five Worlds Prime Minister Denjax Teppler hired me, Mandalorian mercenary Belok Rhal, to assassinate his co-Prime Minister, Genna Delpin. There, is that what you wanted?"

"That's all we needed," the Mandalorian said with a satisfied tone. Then he took out his blaster, undid the safety, clicked it on, and aimed it at Rhal, shooting him straight in the head with a lethal bolt.

The scorch mark burned into the _aruetii_'s forehead wasn't overshadowed by the ironic look of betrayal burned into his dead visage.

"Did you get all that?" Rhal's killer asked out in the darkness behind him.

The light above Rhal's corpse abruptly turned off, only for the room to be completely lit back up to reveal that the entire interrogation took place in a modest bedroom, most likely of a shed or a hut.

Behind Rhal's murderer was the unhelmeted but still-armored form of Mirta Gev Orade with a recorder in her hand, leaning back against the wall next to the exit of the bedroom.

"Only the interrogation part," Mirta said. "I turned it off as soon as he said Delpin's name; can't have people take evidence on what could've been a false confession forced from a helpless victim by his cruel murderer." Her tone was completely nonchalant at the last part; she held no contempt to what her husband, Ghes Orade, just did.

"Good," Ghes said. "And what of Lujura?"

"I interrogated her myself, in case Rhal didn't crack, before I killed her and disposed of the corpse," Mirta said. "I have her confession on this recorder to back up Rhal's. I'm horribly shocked and disgusted, though, that he'd admit to what he did so easily just to save his own ass and his luxuries. I doubt he even thought about his wife at all." She glared hatefully past Ghes at Rhal's corpse. "A true _aruetii_, through and through."

Neither she or Ghes said anymore as they moved to untie Rhal's dead body so they could dispose of it.

.

With stuncuffs repressing his Force abilities shackled around his wrists, Jaden was forcefully shoved into the seat on his side of the interrogation desk. The only thing he was honestly surprised by was the fact that his interrogator wasn't a Chiss, but a human male.

And not just any human male; former Imperial TIE fighter pilot, and current Baron and General of the Chiss Ascendancy, Soontir Fel.

"You have an interesting collection of people with you, Master Korr," Fel commented. "I've had the pleasure of interrogating them all before you, even the Yuuzhan Vong among them. I was genuinely surprised to find that any of them had Force abilities.

"You know, I don't mind that you're trying to restore your Jedi Order, Korr, but I'm still curious why you'd assign _Vong_ of all people, even if they do have Force-sensitivity now."

"Isn't it obvious?" Jaden retorted. "They want to start new lives, And I'm obliging them."

"Oh, I can see that," Fel nodded. "But tell me, even if either my superiors or I could believe that, why should anyone in the Chiss Ascendancy believe what all of them had told us?"

"Does it involve what we were training for?" Jaden asked.

"_Allegedly_ training for," Fel corrected. "You, of all people, are really going to have to convince me why we should believe that this Darth Plagueis is planning on taking over all of reality with an army of Vong from another dimension. Your apprentices, along with that Fosh of yours, all insisted that it was the truth, and they kept their stories straight with the meat of things. Still, why shouldn't we just kill you all and end this new Yuuzhan Vong threat?"

"Because if you don't," Jaden began, "you'll rue this day when an army of Vong take over not only this galaxy, but this reality, and every reality, even though you destroyed Zonama Sekot and drove these Yuuzhan Vong to endangerment."

Fel smirked. "That's what the rest of them said. Is that all you have to back yourself up on, Korr?"

Jaden grimaced. "It is."

Fel shook his head in mock exasperation. "Korr, I've been nice to you and your Jedi, especially to those Vong of yours. And I hoped we would avoid this, but it seems as inevitable as a snowstorm on Csilla." His eyes narrowed and he leaned in across the table. "If none of you will tell us the truth willingly, we'll just have to fall back on good old torture." He leaned back to seat himself in his seat again before looking back up at Jaden's Chiss captors. "Take him back to his cell."

Just as Jaden was hauled out of his seat, he said, "Your daughter's dead, Fel."

His eyes widening, Fel motioned for the two guards to stop their progress in removing Jaden from the room. "What, Korr?"

"When you fired that weapon that destroyed Zonama Sekot, she was on the planet when it happened. I sensed her presence die off with the millions on and around Zonama. And you didn't know about it, huh?"

"And how do I know you're telling the truth about that?"

"Just try contacting your daughter. See where she is. I'm telling you this, by the way, just to let you know." His tone indicated that he hoped against hope that what he said might mean more to the other human besides the grief it would inevitably bring him.

Fel's face contorted into anger before motioning for the guards to take Jaden away for good.


	23. Chapter 23

It had been two days since the Confederation joined the New Rebellion and the Mandalorians against the Hapes Consortium and the Imperial Remnant. And in that short time, the combined fleets led by Turr Phennir, Wedge Antilles, and Boba Fett had taken out roughly ten percent of the Consortium-Remnant forces altogether, an enlightening statistic considering the other attacks that the rebels made before they received help from the Confederation.

So it was quite a wonder why the Mandalorians would want to botch up this alliance with the proof they got.

"You lied to us, Teppler," Boba Fett said to the sole Prime Minister of Corellia over their holographic frequency. The leader of the Mandalorians was talking to the blue-hued figure of Denjax Teppler from the cockpit of the _Slave I_ in an undisclosed location with a good portion of his own fleet. "Neither the Queen Mother nor Reige were responsible for your fellow PM's death; it was you."

Also on the frequency was Captain Mirax Terrik Horn - head of the New Rebellion - Wedge Antilles, and Turr Phennir, all with their own forms seen for Fett's benefit. The Mandalore made sure they would all hear Teppler's resultant confession.

"So I lied to everyone," Teppler admitted almost nonchalantly. "What's it to you, Fett? You and the New Rebellion have greater forces to mount against the Hapes Consortium and the Imperial Remnant; forces the both of your groups desperately need in this war even with your recent successes. I'm quite sure that Captain Horn and Admiral Antilles would be fools to even ask for the Confederation to back out."

"That's not really the point, Teppler," Mirax spoke out. "I think what Mandalore Fett is trying to say here is that you've brought your government in on a false pretense that involved the death of your colleague. Personally, I'm not quite comfortable with allying myself with a murderer and a liar."

"You certainly don't have any reservations about working with a liar and a murderer like Fett, Horn," Teppler grumbled.

"I maybe a liar and a murderer, Prime Minister Teppler," Fett cut in with mock diplomacy, "but when I'm paid, I tend to be completely honest. Unlike you, who'd kill your own colleague to help us."

"If it weren't for me, none of you would be having any of these resources!" Teppler argued.

"And for what you and Admiral Phennir have provided for us, Prime Minister Teppler, we're extremely grateful," Mirax said carefully.

Teppler snorted. "Doesn't sound that way to me."

"On the contrary," Wedge backed up. "But again, that's not the point. The point is, you're cheating scum, even if your intentions were noble. Again, we still thank you for what you've given us, but we can't just let you get away with this."

Teppler growled. "So what now then? Captain Horn, Admiral Antilles, you're just going to stop accepting the Confederation's help just like that, simply because I had to lie to get my government involved in this?"

Mirax shook her head. "Like you said, Teppler, we would be fools if we turned down anymore of the Confederation's support."

"We could use all the weapons, ships, and resources we can get on the Consortium and the Remnant," Wedge begrudgingly agreed.

"So for now, the New Rebellion won't be doing anything with this information," Mirax concluded.

"And neither will the Mandalorians," Fett followed up.

"So why did you even bother to unravel this in the first place, Fett?" Teppler asked. "This doesn't change a thing!"

"I beg to differ," Phennir said.

"Excuse me, Admiral Phennir?" Teppler inquired with authority.

"I should let you know, Prime Minister Teppler, that a police squad should be showing up in your office right about..." Phennir looked at his wrist chrono. "Now."

There was a barging sound coming from Teppler's office, and the Prime Minister turned away from where he was facing his fellow leaders, and a few seconds later, two human Corellia Security Force officers entered the holographic frame; doubtless, others were just outside the range of the frequency for the others to see. The officers had their standard-issue blasters trained up at Teppler, who already had his hands raised in surrender.

One of the officers approached Teppler, blaster still trained on him, as he produced a pair of stuncuffs from his belt. It wasn't long before the Prime Minister was cuffed while being read his rights, and just after he was taken out of frame, the partner of the officer who arrested Teppler turned off the comm, apparently having been aware that their suspect was talking to Fett, Mirax, Wedge, and Phennir.

"I had contacted Admiral Phennir with this information early on, so that this arrest may happen sooner," Fett informed Mirax and Wedge.

"And I suppose Teppler will soon be getting a replacement, Admiral Phennir?" Wedge asked.

"Naturally," Phennir informed Wedge dryly.

"So what will this mean for the Confederation's alignment with the New Rebellion and the Mandalorians?" Mirax asked.

"No matter who will be elected," Phennir assured, "I'll make sure that the next Prime Minister will know that we have to keep this war going against the Consortium and the Remnant, and not for the New Rebellion and the Mandalorians."

"How can you convince him or her of that, Admiral?" Wedge asked.

"The Confederation had fought both the Hapes Consortium and the Imperial Remnant before in this war, Admiral Antilles," Phennir answered. "If we back out of this now, and left the Consortium-Remnant pact to defeat their enemies, I highly doubt that Queen Mother Djo Solo or Head of State Reige won't look at us as a threat in the future anyway."

"So you really have no choice but to be all in, whether you like it or not," Fett pointed out.

"Precisely," Phennir confirmed.

"So now that we've got our lying murderer out of the way, however good his intentions might have been," Mirax said, "what's our next move?"


	24. Chapter 24

"These are most troubling statistics, Poik," Allana commented upon her throne, as usual these days. Her regard upon her typically timid chamberlain was more weary than not, what with how the war against the New Rebellion, the Mandalorians, and now the Confederation was going about now, as Poik just reported. "At least our numbers still trump those of the enemy." Her tone contained no enthusiasm.

The chamberlain nodded, displaying a nervous smile that didn't at all match the feelings in her eyes. "It is good to hear you still carry hope even in these trying times, Milady." Her inflection was just as forced as the Queen Mother's.

The ten-year-old monarch then sat up on her throne and renewed her regard upon Poik with mild intensity. "Is that all you have to report, Poik?"

"It is, Your Highness," the chamberlain answered.

Allana then stood up as regally as she was taught by her late mother. "Then I shall retire to my quarters," she proclaimed. "As it shall always be, you are to report directly to me if there is any progression or regression of this war that I should know about, Poik. Until then, I trust that the item that I have requested is within my personal cabin?"

"The droid has been delivered and is waiting for you as we speak, Your Majesty," Poik answered.

"Excellent," Allana replied, her near-neutral tone belaying any true feelings she had of the droid in her quarters. "Have a good night then, the both of you." She turned her head slightly to acknowledge the discrete presence of her adviser, Ulik Quraq, along with Poik.

After the three of them left the throne room, they split up to head off in their own directions throughout the Fountain Palace. Allana, of course, was the only one to be accompanied by two silent guards at either side, who escorted her all the way to her personal chambers. It was only then, after she entered and closed and locked the door behind her, did the guards finally leave their Queen Mother be.

Sensing that those guards took their leave from outside, Allana turned away from the locked door and found the one thing that she'd sent out for since her return to Hapes following Coruscant's destruction. It was this droid, that had served in her family for so long, for so many decades, who had been loyal to her great-grandfather, her great-uncle, and to her in the short time of her own existence, that the Queen Mother was so glad to see.

All of the weight she carried, all of the burden of knowing that she was one of the leaders of this accursed war, dissipated instantly from her system as soon as she saw the astromech that made her eyes tear up and her heart melt.

"Artoo!" she cried as she rushed over to R2-D2 and hugged him.

The astromech offered a reply made up of his typical bleeps. From the sounds of them, it was obvious even to those who weren't at all fluent in six million forms of communication that Artoo was just as glad to see the little girl now embracing him.

"Oh, Artoo, it's been so horrible!" Allana said as soon as she pulled away from the droid. Her cheeks were now stinging from the water that dribbled from her eyelids. "Ever since everyone around me died, I've had no one to turn to! No one I could just let myself go around! All this..." She gasped from her sobs. "All this war, these politics, this scheming, it's all so stressful! And I don't know how much I can take anymore of this, especially when everyone I know and love are gone! I can't even contact their spirits through the Force! Do you know how alone I feel now?!"

Artoo's reply was a string of low, sympathetic whistles that Allana could understand were the droid's attempts to calm her down and soothe her pain, however vain the attempt was at this point.

The now-fragile monarch wiped the cuff of her sleeve across her eyes to at least clear her blurry vision before she headed to the couch in her quarters' living space. "I know, I know," she said before plopping down on the plush sofa. "But I have no choice; I'm the sole heir of my mother. Anyone else ruling the Consortium would run it to the ground, and I have to bear all this responsibility, no matter how young, inexperienced, naive, or lonely I might be. But as I said, it's just so... hard! It's so difficult to keep up this facade of being the calm and wise young Queen Mother of this government, you know?" Even if she couldn't understand what exactly the astromech would say to her, it was obvious he wouldn't do anything to attempt any contradictions unless he thought it was absolutely necessary.

Alas, however, the droid didn't make any other sound other than the treads of his tires rolling as he wheeled over to the Queen Mother, offering more whistles and beeps with a soothing tone once he reached her side. If Allana weren't in the state of mind she was in right now, she'd idly wonder if Artoo was probably saying the meanest, most deprave things at her without her knowing; not that he actually would, but it was an amusing thought, nonetheless.

"I'm so glad you made it, though," Allana said as she looked up from the floor to the loyal astromech. From what she understood, Artoo had left the Jedi Order after the upgrades that were made to the StealthXs a few months after the Order left Coruscant for Shedu Maad; he decided he'd put his skills to good use elsewhere, especially considering the number of emancipated droids running the galaxy these days, and had Luke's blessings as a freed droid. Artoo's late counterpart, C-3PO, was also offered the chance to leave, but he opted to stay, even if he would miss Artoo.

The two of them then remained silent for a while longer as Allana hugged the astromech again, the one thing that remained of her family.


	25. Chapter 25

Nom Anor, standing at the entrance of their Imperial shuttle's cockpit, observed Jacen just sitting in the pilot seat of their Imperial shuttle, the both of them sullen and silent given Onimi's death.

Just after his friend died for him, Jacen, who had stopped sobbing sometime past Onimi's demise, lumbered in here and plopped himself down like a tonne of bricks. He didn't say or do anything for the following several minutes, and Nom Anor, who had trailed him here, didn't prompt any response from the human; the one-eyed Yuuzhan Vong knew what he was going through, as he also felt the pain of Onimi's death in his own heart.

"We have to go back for the Jedi," Jacen said finally, not turning away from the forward viewport. His tone was now flat, curt, and objective, setting aside the fact that Onimi had joined the Force completely.

"And how are we going to help them?" Nom Anor asked, his own voice still heavy with emotion. While he may not have cried over Onimi's loss, the fact remained that the ugly son of a bitch was still his friend as much as he was Jacen's. "The Chiss will just capture us and set us inside a cell aboard one of their Star Destroyers, if they don't just blow us out of space altogether."

Jacen turned in his chair and narrowed his angry gaze up at the Yuuzhan Vong. "We still have to try," he growled. "They're our only hope now if we can even stand a chance against Plagueis!"

"You have your own powers, your own abilities," Nom Anor argued. "We don't need the Jedi! Let them rot away in Ascendancy imprisonment, you alone could take on-"

Jacen let out a battle cry as he pounced away from the pilot seat, tackled Nom Anor to the deck, and outright screamed, "WE'RE NOT LEAVING THEM BEHIND!"

"Jacen, calm down!" Nom Anor cried.

"You get this through your thick, ridged Vong head! We are going back for the Jedi, no matter what it takes, even if we have to face down the entire Chiss Ascendancy if we have to, but we're not just going to let them rot!"

"You're not thinking clearly, Jacen! We'll never survive! We'll just be throwing both our lives away, and no one will be able to stop Plagueis!"

Jacen leered away from Nom Anor. "Wanna bet?" He then punched the Yuuzhan Vong across the face, knocking him out instantly.

"Well, that was a little harsh," an all-too familiar, echoing voice said from behind Jacen.

The human looked back and away from the unconscious Nom Anor with wide-eyed astonishment; Onimi was standing right there, in front of the cockpit consoles, his form shimmering blue. It was obvious, even to Jacen's emotionally-charged, judgment-impaired mind that Onimi was now a Force-ghost.

"He's right, you know," Onimi's ghost commented as Jacen stood up to fully face the deformed Yuuzhan Vong's phantom. "It'd be suicide either way if you went back for the Jedi."

Jacen was speechless for a moment; seeing the spirit of his dead friend, who died not half an hour earlier, was most likely a factor in that.

"Hey, hey, get back to reality, man," Onimi said before reaching out and slapping Jacen across the face.

"Ow!" Jacen screamed, instinctively grabbing a hand across the now-red portion of his cheek. He looked at his dead friend again for a moment, only more with surprise mixed with confusion this time, before lowering his hand back to his side. "How'd you do that?"

Onimi shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't know. Maybe the Force gave me special abilities as a ghost, probably because I had special abilities while I was alive. I never knew Force ghosts could actually do that. That's my theory anyway. But back to business. You can't just throw your life away for the Jedi, dude, just as Nommy just said."

"Oh, yeah, like I won't be throwing my life away anyway if I go up against Plagueis alone, and Force knows that Nommy's not gonna be a big help to me in that fight," Jacen replied.

"True," Onimi nodded. "But maybe I can help."

Jacen's eyebrows beetled in confusion.

"Hey, I just slapped you across the face as a ghost, I'm sure I can come in handy against Plagueis," Onimi said.

Jacen's eyes then widened in realization. "Onimi, perhaps there's a way you can help me take out Plagueis _and_ rescue the Jedi!"

"What are you talking about?" Onimi asked.

Jacen grinned evilly. "You think you can do some hauntings for me?"

"Alright, but as long as I get to haunt that motherfucker right there first, I can do whatever the hell you want, man," Onimi said as he pointed to the still-unconscious Nom Anor.

Jacen shook his head regretfully. "We don't have time for that, Oni. We gotta do this as soon as possible. Now, if you could-"

"Wait, wait, since when did you start calling me Oni?" the deformed Yuuzhan Vong asked.

"Since you came to me as a Force ghost a minute ago," Jacen replied sardonically. "Now, as I was saying-"

"Hold on, he's coming around," Onimi said, indicating Nom Anor, who now stirred back to consciousness on the deck.

Jacen rolled his eyes. "If it'll get you back to concentration, you can scare him just this one bit, but we really have to get back on track after this."

Somehow, Onimi's visage smiling seemed very childish rather than monstrous just then. "Thanks!" His form then glided past Jacen to hover over Nom Anor.

A few seconds later, the unconscious Yuuzhan Vong came around completely, and Onimi's form quickly leered down at him, his monstrous growl echoing and mixing in with Nom Anor's terrified screams. The dead Yuuzhan Vong then floated back so that he was "standing" on the deck again, and he laughed, with Nom Anor looking scared and confused now, looking between Onimi's ghost and Jacen, wanting clarification.

"He might be just more useful to us dead now," was all Jacen told Nom Anor. He looked back up to his dead friend. "Are you finished?"

Onimi stopped laughing and nodded wordlessly to the human.

"Good, so here's how this is gonna go down..."


	26. Chapter 26

There was a knock General Fel's office's door, and the sole occupant behind the desk there announced, "Come."

The door opened up, and Admiral Shawnkyr Nuruodo walked in, the door then closing behind her. "You were quite vague as to what you wanted to speak to me about, General Fel," she said with a condescending tone.

"My apologies, Admiral Nuruodo," Fel replied as he sat back in his chair. He then waved at one of the two guest seats on the other side of his desk. "Please, have a seat."

Nuruodo took her seat, and Fel then leaned over his desk to narrow his stern gaze at the admiral. "Now let's get down to business. I was deliberately vague, Admiral, about why I wanted to see you in my office rather than yours on the trip back to Csilla, and the reason is twofold. First off, I wanted to be in familiar territory." He waved at the office around him. "Better to fight in homeland, as it were, as your enemy is less familiar with it."

"What is the meaning of this, Fel?" Nuruodo demanded.

"Second of all," Fel continued, as if the admiral didn't say anything, "I wanted to make sure you didn't have any of your men and women with you when I questioned you."

"Question me?" Nuruodo asked. "Question me about what?"

"You allowed my daughter into the fleet for the attack on Zonama Sekot, even after I told her she couldn't," Fel stated angrily. "Didn't you?"

Nuruodo's face was wrinkled with confusion. "She didn't tell you that she had my express consent?"

"Oh, she told me about that," Fel informed her, his tone still dripping with venom. "And I still didn't allow her."

"I outrank you, in case you have forgotten, General Fel," Nuruodo intoned. "I could override your authority at anytime I wish for what I think is right and/or for what I think is best for the fleet."

Fel smacked his palms down on his desktop. "And yet, you went behind my back, not telling me yourself, not even allowing Wynssa to act as your liaison in this, even if it wouldn't have worked on me anyway, and you allowed her to join the strike force."

Nuruodo's face fell back into confusion. "But she told me you approved."

Fel's eyes widened with shock and outrage. "What?!"

"She informed me herself," Nuruodo said. "Wynssa told me that that you allowed her into the fleet." Her face fell with disappointment. "She lied to me."

Fel formed a fist and struck it down on the tabletop angrily. "She went behind both our backs." His military-style composure faded altogether then. "AND NOW SHE'S DEAD BECAUSE OF IT!"

Nuruodo couldn't help but flinch despite herself. "She died in the attack?" she asked after she felt it was safe to talk to Fel again.

"You didn't know? I figured you would," Fel said. "Didn't you even check the casualty records?"

Nuruodo shook her head nervously; she now felt like a cadet compared to Fel, what with his righteous fatherly anger.

"And _why_ didn't you?" Fel demanded.

Nuruodo hissed through her teeth, not in derision of Fel, but of herself. "I... I..."

"You what?"

"I... I just assumed she'd make it out, is all," Nuruodo shrugged, looking down at the floor when she said it.

For a while, there were no other sounds in the office other than the tapping of Fel's finger on his desktop. "Really?" he asked in a weary tone. "You thought she'd make it out."

Nuruodo forced herself to look back up at Fel again. "Yes." Her voice was now mousy.

Fel looked like he was on the verge of vaulting his desk and strangling Nuruodo to death with his bare hands. "And what gaze you that impression to begin with?" His tone was now a subdued holler.

"Well, it's just that..."

"Just what?"

Nuruodo hesitated a few seconds. "I thought... I thought she'd live up to the Fel legacy, given how you and your son were such great pilots, and given her marks at the Academy, it crossed my mind that she might very well-"

"Survived her first real mission, huh?" Fel finished, nodding along. For a moment there, it didn't look like he was going to lash out.

Nuruodo nodded wordlessly.

"I see," Fel whispered. He looked back on his tabletop for a few seconds before looking back into Nuruodo's blood-red eyes and standing up from his chair. The human then slowly walked around his desk so that he ended up behind the Chiss admiral, all the while saying, "And you didn't even bother to meet her anytime soon after the battle?"

Somehow, Nuruodo felt it would be the end of her if she even dared to turn her head back a little to look at Fel. Instead, she focused her gaze forward, to where the subordinate general, who now commanded more authority than he did, was just sitting, and shook her head in response to his recent question.

"So when did you intend to see her then, Admiral?" Fel asked, leaning down so that his head was next to Nuruodo's.

"Wh-when we got back to Cs-cs-csilla," she stammered.

"Uh-huh," Fel responded neutrally as he leaned back and away from the Chiss. He then turned, walked a few paces to his office's exit, stopped, reached out to touch the left side of his door, and turned back. "And what do you think you would've said to her?"

Nuruodo remained silent, not sure what she should say next.

"I asked you, Admiral, what you would have said to her once we returned to Csilla," he said, advancing behind her. "I _insist_ that you answer my question."

Nuruodo took in an obvious breath. "I would have congratulated her on the success of her first mission," she said in a more confident tone than she thought she could have mustered at that point.

"And what do you think she would have said to you?" Fel asked, stopping directly behind her.

"I believe," she began, "she would've thanked me for allowing her to go on this mission."

"Indeed," Fel said, as if it were obvious - which it was. He then walked back to his desk and sat down, giving out a forced sigh of contentment. "You know, Shawnkyr, you were quite a loyal friend of my son Jagged back in his formative, and, of course, during the Yuuzhan Vong War. And not only did I _approve_-" he emphasized the word in an accusatory note "-of your friendship with him, but I was also personally proud of you when you climbed the ranks of this military to surpass even me in rank. Quite frankly, you were like another daughter to me." He leaned over his desk again. "But the fact remains, you never were my daughter. Wynssa was. And because of you, Wynssa is gone."

"Sir?" Nuruodo asked fearfully as Fel leaned back in his seat.

"And if Jag were still alive," Fel continued, "I would have forced myself to give you a false forgiveness for sending my daughter out into the field like that. As it is, your rank can't hold back a father's vengeance." He then tapped his foot against one side of his desk's underside, which then opened up a hidden compartment on the side facing Nuruodo.

The Chiss's red eyes widened when she saw what was in that compartment.

A small blaster that sent a lethal charric bolt straight into her chest, killing her instantly.

Fel then looked back to his door to find the green light at the side of the exit, hidden from Shawnkyr's sight, still flashing, indicating that the entire office was still soundproofed so that no one on the outside could hear. He smiled grimly.


	27. Chapter 27

After Poik finished reciting the statistics of how many in the way of forces both the Hapes Consortium and the Imperial Remnant lost - which was now heading for twenty percent in total thanks to New Rebellion and their allies - Allana dismissed the chamberlain from the throne room as usual. When the door opened, however, Poik had to stop lest she bump her legs against the beeping astromech droid standing at waist height, and then had to move out of the way to let R2-D2 inside.

"Your Majesty?" Poik asked, nodding her head at Artoo.

"Let him be," Allana said. "As you were."

Poik hesitated before executing a graceful bow and leaving the chamber, closing the door behind her.

"What is it, Artoo?" Allana asked as the droid continued to roll forward on his wheeling legs. Once she saw that a manipulator arm was sticking out of a compartment, carrying a datapad of some sort, Allana stood up from her throne and walked down the dais to meet Artoo halfway. "What have you got there?"

The two of them stopped once they were just inches apart, allowing for Allana to take the datapad and read the text written on the display screen. There, she read the words, **THIS DATAPAD WILL ACT AS YOUR TRANSLATOR FOR ME. I URGE THAT YOU DISMISS THAT ADVISER OF YOURS THERE, TOO**.

Allana turned her head to look back up at the dais, where Uliq Quraq still stood dutifully at attention with a neutral expression.

"You are dismissed, Lady Quraq," Allana proclaimed.

The adviser looked surprised. "For how long, if I may be so bold to ask, Your Majesty?"

"Until I call you back," Allana answered. "Have a good evening."

Like Poik before her, Quraq hesitated before executing a similarly graceful bow and proceeded to leave the throne room.

After she was gone, Allana looked back at the datapad in her hands to find the words, **I WAS JUST COMING OVER TO SEE HOW YOU WERE DOING, ORIGINALLY. THAT WAS, UNTIL I READ THE BIOSCANS OF SEVERAL INDIVIDUALS THAT I HAVE ENCOUNTERED THAT ARE MOST DISCONCERTING, AND THAT I KNEW YOU NEEDED TO KNOW RIGHT AWAY**. The text and blank background on the display screen disappeared to be replaced by a bioscan board, showing the readouts for all of the individuals that Artoo had passed on his way to the throne room.

Her eyes widened in shock before looking directly at the astromech droid. "But this is impossible! I did the search myself, probed their presences to see if they were visible in the Force, even checked them if they had those ooglith masquers on, as those veterans from the Yuuzhan Vong War told me!"

**YOU ALREADY HAD YOUR SUSPICIONS ABOUT THIS?** The text was now in a sequestered corner on the display screen so as to not replace the bioscans readings.

"We actually did catch a Yuuzhan Vong spy, but he claimed to be the only one in the Palace before he committed suicide," Allana informed the astromech. "I went ahead with my own search anyway, and they all turned up clean to me." She looked back at the bioscans. "How could this even be possible?" Then her eyes and mouth widened even further in realization. "Plagueis," she whispered. But just as quickly as the realization dawned on her, she shook her head to shake the thought out, too. "That can't be true either. Even his mental powers waned on me when he returned to this reality."

**WAIT. WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?**

Allana sighed. "You've never heard about Darth Plagueis, Artoo?"

**I'M VAGUELY FAMILIAR WITH THE NAME. I HEARD RUMORS THAT YOU MANAGED TO USE SOME KIND OF DEVICE ON HIM TO SEND HIM INTO ANOTHER REALITY, OR SOME OTHER SUCH NONSENSE**.

"Well, that nonsense happens to be true," Allana confirmed. "Then he came back because he forced me to get him back."

**HOW?**

"After my mother died, he reached out between the realities separating us and took hold of her soul," Allana explained. "He threatened to torture her essence if I didn't do what he wanted."

**HAS HE LIVED UP TO THE BARGAIN?**

Allana hesitated. "Sort of. He still has her soul under his control, but I can feel that he isn't harming her. So that's good enough for me."

**YOU ALSO FELT THAT NO ONE ELSE IN THE PALACE WAS A YUUZHAN VONG, AND YET, SOMEHOW, YOU WERE WRONG**.

Allana was silent for a moment as she contemplated Artoo's words. "Do you think Plagueis has somehow gotten past the fact that he can't do anything to me with the Force?"

**WHAT?**

"Oh, sorry, I forgot, you're not all that up to speed," Allana replied, frustrated. "I guess, because he was the one who gave the midi-chlorians to my great-great-grandmother, that somehow created an ability to use the Force on me, although he could telepathically manipulate me on a limited level. As I said when you came to me with this just now, that waned when he came back to this reality, Artoo. If he found some way to get over his weaknesses with me, then we're in even more trouble than we thought."

**AS BAD AS THAT SOUNDS, WHAT DOES ALL THIS HAVE TO DO WITH THESE BIOSCANS?**

"It may very well have everything to do with the bioscans, Artoo," Allana said. "Because the reality I sent Plagueis to was populated exclusively by Yuuzhan Vong."

Artoo emitted a shrill, piercing whistle, as if he were screaming and panicking over what Allana just told him.

**YOU MEAN HE'S MANAGED TO TAKE OVER THE YUUZHAN VONG OF ANOTHER REALITY TO DOMINATE THIS ONE****?**

"Not just this one," Allana said. "But all of reality."

**ALL OF REALITY? HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS?**

Allana sighed again. "Because he told me so."

Artoo was silent for a moment, and the screen continued to display both the bioscans and the droid's recent two questions. Then that text disappeared to be replaced by, **YOU'RE LETTING HIM TAKE OVER ALL OF REALITY?!**

"I didn't know that he'd do it like this," Allana said. "I honestly thought he was just kinda lounging around, allowing me to get through this war before he actually began doing anything. And besides, what can I do? He has my mother's spirit imprisoned! I can't let her be tortured by that madman!"

**I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE ALLOWING HIM TO GO THROUGH WITH HIS PLANS, EVEN IF YOU DIDN'T KNOW WHAT THOSE PLANS WERE, EVEN IF IT WAS FOR YOUR MOTHER. YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF.**

Tears began streaming down Allana's cheeks, just like that. "I know," she whispered. "I know. But I can't do anything, Artoo. All I can do is handle what I can handle."

**WELL, IT'S TIME YOU BEGAN HANDLING MORE, BECAUSE I KNOW THAT THE GRANDDAUGHTER OF THE SOLOS, THE GREAT-NIECE OF LUKE SKYWALKER, THE COUSIN OF BEN SKYWALKER, THE NIECE OF JAINA SOLO, AND THE DAUGHTER OF JACEN SOLO AND TENEL KA DJO WOULDN'T BE SO COMPLACENT. EVEN THREEPIO HAD MORE GUTS THAN YOU! ALL OF YOUR RELATIVES WOULD BE DISGUSTED IF THEY SAW YOU ACTING LIKE THE COWARD YOU ARE!**

Allana shrieked and used the Force to throw Artoo back across the throne room. The astromech let out one final squeal of terror before crashing against the wall behind him and bursting into millions of sparking metallic pieces on the pristine floor.

"Artoo!" Allana screamed once she realized what she did. "No!" She then ran over to the remnants of the last of her family, knelt down, and sobbed. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She repeated those words almost endlessly in between her crying.

She knelt there, crying, for quite a while. But when she stopped sobbing, she raised her head, her face now a determined expression, wiped her tears off with the cuff of her sleeve, and stood up.

"Plagueis," she muttered to the door before her. "This ends now." She marched to the door to leave the throne room.


	28. Chapter 28

_What have I done?_ Soontir Fel mentally asked himself as he looked at Shawnkyr Nuruodo's corpse on the other side of his desk. It was still sitting in that guest chair in his office, several minutes after he burned a lethal bolt in the Chiss's chest for Wynssa's death.

He was initially satisfied by dishing out whatever vengeance he could for Wyn's memory, even if the knowledge that his daughter was never coming back continued to run through his mind. But now that Fel had achieved what he now realized was essentially pseudo-revenge - as Nuruodo didn't have anything to do with Wyn's death directly - he also saw the outright stupidity of what he'd just committed.

He just killed a higher-ranking admiral in the Chiss Ascendancy Defense Force, an act that would most undoubtedly earn him a sentence that would be executed by ordering a firing squad to gun him down.

Now what was he going to do?

There was another knock on his door.

"Who is it?" Fel asked worriedly as he looked around his office, desperately searching for a place to hide Nuruodo's corpse.

"This is Private Bell'abi'netro, General Fel," the young male voice on the other end answered. "May I come in?"

"What for?" Fel asked as he stood up, rounded his desk, and grabbed Nuruodo's shoulders to haul her up out of her seat.

"There is an emergency, sir, that I think is urgent for you to know, as unbelievable as it may sound," Bell'abi'netro - or Labin, as Fel figured to be his core name - reported.

"Can you tell me while you're still outside, Private?" Fel inquired, his voice suffering a minor strain as he lumbered Nuruodo's corpse toward the secret compartment he just remembered was in his office. It was located in the back corner of the rightmost wall; rightmost from whenever he sat behind his desk, anyway.

"Um... Are you busy in there, General?" Labin asked back.

"Quite," Fel answered as he pressed the button to have the secret compartment's door shuffle up and out of sight. "So can you just tell me the information I must know, Private, and be done with it?" He then carefully laid Nuruodo's body inside what was an extra closet space.

"Uh... If you say so, General Fel."

As Labin said that, Fel pressed the same button he used to open the secret compartment to close it back up. Then he turned back for the door but made no move to open it; if he used that facade to at least temporarily hide his crime, he might as well go all the way with it at the moment. Labin continued as Fel was setting himself, as if he would indeed see the Chiss on the other side of the door.

"We have hauntings throughout the Star Destroyer, sir."

"Hauntings, Private?" Fel asked, sitting himself down behind his desk again. "What do you mean hauntings?"

"As I said, I know this sounds silly, sir, but I'm talking about ghost hauntings throughout all the decks of this ship!" Labin nearly screamed. "We tried reaching you by comm to let you know about this, but our frequency is being jammed somehow! We think it might be the ghost that's doing this!"

As superstitious and as idiotic as that would normally sound, Fel wouldn't be one to dismiss it entirely; first of all, no Chiss soldier in the history of the Defense Force would ever dare risk even the most lenient of punishments for childish pranks like that, so Fel figured that even if Labin wasn't telling the truth right now, he was being sincerely wrong. Second, considering Fel's experience with the Jedi and what knowledge he had on them - such as the fact that they could manifest their essences on this plane of existence, if they were trained in doing so beforehand - he felt justified in figuring that this may very well be a Jedi Force-ghost haunting them. But if so, why would that be the case?

"Maybe it is because you have several of our own as your prisoners?" a horrible, guttural voice with an unnatural echo said from behind Fel.

The human immediately whirled around and froze in horror at the sight before him; what appeared to be a deformed Yuuzhan Vong with a blue halo surrounding his figure. For a moment, as Fel stared back at the figure before him, he could do nothing but stand still from petrification.

"Maybe if you gave back our Jedi," the figure said, "I wouldn't have to do all these hauntings, General Fel."

"Sir, is that him with you in there?!" Labin's panicked voice called out. "Get out of there! Get out of there right now!"

Before Fel could do anything after recovering from his brief petrification - whether it'd be instinctively whipping out and aiming his holdout blaster at the figure or do as Labin said and leave the office immediately - the haloed creature suddenly reached out with one arm and formed a loose fist.

That gesture alone caused Fel to continue standing still even after he could move of his own free will again.

"I'm afraid your general can't do that, Private," the figure said aloud in the Chiss tongue. "I've got him in my grasp now. And don't even think about blowing open that locked door or anything, or I swear I will kill him, along with all the other fleet commanders in this force that has destroyed Zonama Sekot."

"You have the commanders in the other Star Destroyers in your grasp as well?" Fel asked in Basic.

"What makes you think you'd be so special as to earn my attention alone?" the figure retorted. "Other than that this is the Star Destroyer holding the Jedi. I'll admit, though, I'm quite surprised that I could actually do this without any training, stretching my essence out while still remaining consistently powerful wherever I have my spirit. It's this odd mix of being in a hive mind yet retaining your individuality at the same time, is all I can describe it as. But I'm getting far from the point, I'm here for the Jedi."

"So this is what this is about?" Fel asked. "You want your Jedi?"

"You certainly demonstrate the genius that Thrawn established with these people, General Fel," the figure replied sarcastically. "So if you would be so kind as to release those Jedi, I will leave all of you alone, and I won't have to use my special powers to kill anybody, okay? I'll even reestablish connections among your fleet, too." He then whispered so that Labin couldn't hear from the outside of the office. "And I won't have to tell anyone about your own little secret, General." He tilted his head to the compartment where Nuruodo's body was.

"And how do I know I can trust you to keep your word?" Fel asked.

The figure smirked. "You can't. That's the fun of it."

"Well, in either case, you might as well kill all of us, because we've already alerted the Ruling Phalanxes about our captured Jedi from the Zonama Sekot mission, monster," Fel said. "If we don't return with them, we may all face extreme consequences, particularly myself and my fellow commanders."

"And you already dug yourself a pretty big grave, huh?" the figure whispered. Then his voice was aloud again, for Labin's benefit. "Fair enough, General. So as we speak, here's the deal; you release your prisoners, and you get to tell your superiors that you discovered a large contingent of Yuuzhan Vong forces mounting somewhere between Zonama and Csilla. I'm sure they'll understand that you might lose your prisoners if, say, the forces you encounter happen to breach your defenses and help the Jedi escape. They maybe disappointed, but I doubt you'll be in any big trouble, especially after you succeeded in your primary mission anyway."

Fel hesitated before he spoke. "Do any of the other commanders in this fleet know about this?"

"Like I said, just I'm talking to you, General, I'm talking to the others, and it's quite amazing how they all seem to think like you," the figure said mockingly. "Almost like a hive mind, eh?" His remark was obviously poking at the time that the Chiss were once under the Killik hive of Thuruht's control near the end of the Second Swarm War. The figure then whispered. "But don't worry, your secret, General, is safe with me; at least for now." He rose the volume of his voice again. "So what do you say, General?"

Fel grimaced, but didn't hesitate. "The prisoners are yours."

The figure then vanished into thin air, the grasp around Fel's body disappearing just as well.

"Private Labin?" Fel called.

"Sir?"

"You heard him. See to it that the prisoners are released."

"Understood, sir." The sound of Labin's footsteps signified his departure from the outside of Fel's office.


	29. Chapter 29

Onimi's spirit manifested itself in Team Jacen's Imperial shuttle's relaxation area, where Jacen and Nom Anor were sitting around the holochess table, staring back at their dead friend with expectation.

"We're gettin' the Jedi back, just as you wanted, Jacen," Onimi reported in an uncharacteristically neutral tone.

"Yes!" Jacen exclaimed, unable to help himself from slamming a fist down on the table in celebration. "Thanks for doing this, Oni. I owe you one."

"I don't like it when you call me Oni, you know," Onimi replied with more of a miserable drawl this time.

"I think I only called you that twice, including this time, both at the point that you're dead," Jacen pointed out with a curious tone. "You're already sick of it?"

"I think that he thinks that 'Oni' sounds too cute and childish," Nom Anor asserted with a mischievous smile. "Maybe he wouldn't want to be called Oni the Friendly Ghost or something like that."

"Nommy, shut up," Onimi said threateningly.

"Oni, the Friendly Ghost, the friendliest ghost you'll know," Nom Anor sung mockingly.

"You sing that again, Nommy, and I swear to nonexistent Yun-Yammka that I'll tear out your remaining eye-"

"Enough, enough," Jacen said, raising his arms to try to calm tensions. "Nommy, you can mock Oni later and worry about him ripping out your eye and doing whatever else later."

Onimi growled at Jacen's continued use of only using the first three letters of his name in addressing him now.

"Anyway, is there anything else we should know about with the Jedi and the Chiss, Onimi?" Jacen asked the dead Yuuzhan Vong.

Onimi raised an eyebrow - at least what could be an eyebrow since he was a ghost - and nodded in respect to his human friend. "As a matter of fact, there is. Considering that General Soontir Fel, who was holding the Jedi aboard his Star Destroyer, has a dirty little secret he doesn't want anyone knowing about, I figured we could use a little Chiss help in going up against Plagueis."

Jacen's face dropped in worry. "You're getting the Chiss involved in this? I think that might be a little much, Onimi."

"Don't worry," Onimi assured the human. "Fel's got an alibi that even the others in the fleet will believe. No one back at Csilla will suspect a thing."

"What alibi?" Nom Anor asked.

"A battle," Onimi said. "And considering my powers, I actually managed to ding up a few of the Chiss's Star Destroyers to make it look like they made contact with Yuuzhan Vong forces after Zonama; you know, to make things look convincing enough."

"Why a follow-up battle?" Jacen asked.

"Plausible explanation for how the Jedi could have escaped, which would give the _Militant Explorer_ - that's Fel's Star Destroyer, by the way - a good excuse to come after us and their Yuuzhan Vong accomplices," Onimi explained.

"How are you so sure that no one else in the fleet will sell Fel out on assisting us and the Jedi?" Nom Anor inquired.

"I did what Jacen told me to do and scared them by haunting them," Onimi answered, as if it were obvious. "I sensed the universal fear in all of them. They're too scared to betray Fel."

"You know, I just realized," Nom Anor said. "With all your new powers thanks to you being dead, Onimi, it seems like you can take on Plagueis yourself and win."

Both Jacen and Onimi's eyes widened in realization, as if Nom Anor's statement didn't occur to them before. "Well, I guess I could go and try," Onimi said. He looked at the human. "You think it'll be alright, Jacen?"

The human thought about it, but shook his head in denial. "I don't think we can risk it. It'd be too easy, and I'm sure someone like Plagueis will have some way to counter the power of a Force ghost. If anything, Onimi should act as our ace in the hole in our coming confrontation with Plagueis, or act as a valuable help in either case."

"Never hurts to be cautious," Onimi agreed reluctantly.

"Yes, but the longer Plagueis is unimpeded when we have some way of confronting him, even if it's just one of us, the more likely he'll be able to take over all of reality," Nom Anor argued. "I say Onimi should go out, find out where Plagueis is, and take him on right now."

"You won't be doing that unless I say so, Onimi," Jacen declared. He returned his attention to Nom Anor. "Remember this, Nommy, I'm the leader of this group, not you. So if I say Onimi stays here with us and confronts Plagueis with us, he'll do just that." He looked back at his dead friend. "Isn't that right, Onimi?"

Onimi emitted a sigh that shouldn't have been possible, given his ghostly status. "You know what you're doing, Jacen. I'll do what you say. Besides, if Plagueis was even more powerful than Domina, who managed to kill me with my own toxins even after she died, I'd say you're right to be worried even about me."

Jacen nodded respectfully. "Thanks, Onimi."

"Fine, we'll listen to you, if only because the both of you can easily kick my ass with the Force," Nom Anor said with a defeated tone. "So are we lifting off this rock or what?"

Jacen nodded at the one-eyed Yuuzhan Vong and left his seat to head for the cockpit, with Nom Anor following along. Onimi disappeared, only to manifest again in the cockpit in between Jacen and Nom Anor, who were already in the shuttle's pilot and copilot seats respectfully. In almost no time at all, Jacen had the shuttle's engines up and running before lifting it off the surface that Onimi had set it down upon back when he was alive.

A few minutes later, after Onimi told his friends about which system he found Fel's fleet when he haunted them, Nom Anor set the coordinates for that system, and the shuttle was off into hyperspace.


	30. Chapter 30

Allana didn't bother using either of the throne room door's controls or even its old-fashioned manual handles to open it up. She simply used the Force to blow it out and open, where the two guards at the other end, who were just rushing for the room - no doubt responding to the Queen Mother's shout when she unintentionally destroyed R2-D2 - stopped dead in their tracks. Their expressions went from concerned to a mix of that with confusion as their queen was marching past them.

"Return to your previous duties," she said curtly, not looking either of them in the eyes, as she moved past them down the corridor, "and leave me be."

Allana ignored all of the greetings she would get from any of the non-guards she passed down in the corridors she was practically gliding through, and she wordlessly waved off the guards she came into contact with along the way. Eventually, less than a minute after leaving the throne room, she turned from the turbolift she ended up facing and headed for the emergency staircase; as far as she was concerned, a turbolift would be too slow for her tastes just now.

She used the Force to blow open the stairway door meters before she reached it, and after arriving at the top of the steps, she vaulted over the railing to plummet a few floors before catching onto a rail. She broke her landing by cushioning it with the Force so that her arms wouldn't snap from their sockets, then used the momentum she gained to vault up and over that railing to land on that floor. Then, like the previous doors, she used the Force to open up the emergency entryway now before her and walked through.

After a few more twists and turns down the corridor she now walked, she abruptly turned to the door that led into Plagueis's quarters and used the Force to blast the door off its hinges, where it flew through to crash through the viewport at the other end of the living room there.

"Plagueis!" Allana shouted as soon as she entered, stopping a few feet from the threshold of the open entrance behind her. "Where are you?!"

The immortal Sith Lord appeared at the threshold of what led into his cabin's kitchen. His expression was set more with annoyance than anger at Allana's violent break-in. "What do you want, Your Highness?" he asked in a mocking tone.

Allana didn't bother to answer. She emitted a battle cry as she quickly raised up her hands, palms facing away from her, so that she channeled out a particularly powerful Force-wave that sent Plagueis flying back across the kitchen. He crashed so that his buttocks were stuck in the sink; to a girl like Allana, the image would be funny if she weren't in the state of mind she was in right now.

As it was, the Queen Mother appeared at the threshold and stopped when she saw the meter-long red-hided creature laying on top of the kitchen table. She looked over at Plagueis, who was now pushing himself out of the sink and wiping himself down, as if he wasn't just violently attacked.

"What is that?" Allana demanded, pointing at the creature on the table.

Plagueis offered his typical arrogant smile. "A taozin, if you must know, Your Majesty," he answered, his tone still disingenuous. "It's helped me get past your powers; not that you could really be much of a threat to me at this point." He then threw up one hand to send out a burst of Force energy toward Allana, which blasted her back across the living room behind her, where she inevitably crashed through the wooden caf table.

As Plagueis leisurely strolled into the living room, he said, "You know, one thing that's been on my mind ever since you sent me into that reality with the Yuuzhan Vong, Allana, was the utter embarrassment of knowing that I was defeated by a child. A particularly powerful child, but a child nonetheless." Once he was in the living room, two guards showed up at the destroyed entryway into the cabin, which Plagueis all but vaporized with a simple flick of his hand that sent out a stronger Force-wave than before.

Allana looked between the Muun and the spot where the vaporized guards were in horror as she warily stood back up.

"Shall we have a rematch, Your Highness?" Plagueis asked as he unhooked his lightsaber from his belt and ignited it.

Setting her face with determination, Allana also unhooked and ignited her lightsaber from her belt and charged at the Sith, aggressively striking at him amidst his rooted defensive stance.

The duel lasted for all of ten seconds before it ended with Plagueis almost casually swatted his free hand against Allana's blade - which had no effect on his immortal and invincible hand - so that he was able to use his next strike to chop off the Queen Mother's weapon hand. Allana then collapsed to the floor on her back in unbearable agony, grabbing the cauterized stump of her right hand out of instinct.

Plagueis then deactivated his lightsaber and replaced it on his belt, patiently waiting for Allana's screams to die down to a mere repetitive whimper before saying, "And this is what your trouble has also earned you, Your Highness." Spreading his arms wide, the ethereal form of Tenel Ka Djo - Allana's mother and predecessor as Queen Mother - appeared between the girl and the Sith Lord, her eyes closed as they were before when Plagueis demonstrated his powers over her.

"Mommy!" Allana screamed. "Please, don't!"

Plagueis's outstretched hands then closed into tight fists, which prompted Tenel Ka's spirit to snap open her white light-filled eyes and scream in agony. Her pain only added to Allana's physical, mental, and emotional pain, which lasted for the longest five seconds of the living Queen Mother's life.

And when those seconds were over, Allana just curled up into a fetal position and cried, vainly calling out for her dead mommy.

"Your 'mommy' is now banished into a realm of the Force of my own creation, Your Highness," Plagueis explained, even though Allana wasn't listening. It was clear that he was only talking for himself. "She will suffer for all of eternity, because you couldn't cooperate with me completely. Good day to you, Allana." He left her like that as he departed from his cabin.


	31. Chapter 31

After Plagueis stepped out of his quarters, he used the Force to call back the door that Allana blew out upon her entry into his cabin. It flew from where it landed from its fall out the window to reestablish itself back in its proper place, which then allowed Plagueis to mold the edges of the door around its former hinges so it could never be opened by anyone other than himself. He didn't even have to turn back around or falter in his steps as he headed down the corridor for the nearest turbolift.

Continuing in his short trip to that lift without anymore use of the Force, Plagueis took out his commlink and activated it.

"Yes?" the voice of the chamberlain Poik came through.

"This is Darth Plagueis," the Sith Lord identified himself as he reached the turbolift and pressed the up button. "I need you to gather up everyone in the Palace and send them to the throne room at once, Poik."

"I don't believe you have the proper authority to do that, Lord Plagueis," Poik said in her most rude yet most diplomatic tone.

"As a matter of fact, I do," Plagueis responded as he stepped into the opening elevator. "The Queen Mother is no longer in charge of the Consortium."

There was an audible gasp from the other end. "What have you done, monster?"

"Oh, please, don't act like the blindly loyal chamberlain you played yourself out to be, Poik," Plagueis said. "I'm fully aware of your intended treachery to Her Majesty. Do you want that information to leak out to those who are loyal to the bloodline?"

"They certainly won't accept anything coming from our queen's murderer!"

"Well, technically, she's not dead yet, as I can still feel her fading presence in the Force," Plagueis corrected as he left the opening turbolift for the level to the throne room. "But even if those who are loyal were to believe you more than they me, you still have to consider this; Doctor Cavaz is still a little more than five months away from completing that handheld Reality Travel Device of hers."

The other line of the communication was silent for a while as Plagueis continued on his way for the throne room. "Very well, I will gather everyone in the throne room at once."

"Thank you," Plagueis replied diplomatically before cutting off the connection. He did no more as he continued the rest of the way for the throne room.

.

Each and every one of the Fountain Palace's occupants, including the disguised Phaa Anor and his similarly-disguised spies, who entered the throne room over the span of ten minutes were all shocked to find Plagueis sitting on the throne with that arrogant smile plastered on his alien visage. No one dared to question him though, as they were all aware of his immortality, so it was clear that they thought if any one of them had asked him what he was doing sitting on the Queen Mother's throne, he would kill that individual and anyone else who agreed with the victim in a heartbeat.

Certainly, at the front of the crowd, Poik remained stoic and silent as she stared back at Plagueis. The Sith Lord only offered that same disgustingly confident look that he was giving everyone who now laid eyes on him here.

When the ten minutes were over, and everyone in the Palace was assembled into an organized crowd, Plagueis spoke. "I know what all of you are thinking. What is he doing on the Queen Mother's throne? The answer is quite simple, yet, for many of you, still quite shocking; I, an alien male of the Order of the Sith Lords, am taking over the Hapes Consortium."

As could be predicted, a large majority of the crowd broke out into startled gasps and and whispered murmurs to each other. After a short while of this, Plagueis projected his voice out with the Force and commanded, "Silence." The room automatically fell silent. "For your Queen Mother, she has at best two hours to live before she eventually dies from the pain I've caused her."

Several people in the crowd turned and attempted to make their way for the throne room exit, but Plagueis stopped them all by using the Force to pull them back in, as if those who sought to depart were all in a unified lasso that somehow managed to snake past those who were still staying. Naturally, those who were pulled back collapsed against others in the crowd, causing a sort of domino effect where everyone fell to the floor, either on their backs or prone. As this happened, Plagueis took the time to use the Force again to shut the throne room door closed and locked.

One of the doctors in the crowd who was one of the first to get up hurried for the control panel, only to get a bolt of lightning to his extended finger that blew him back against two people who were on their hands and knees in the process of getting up.

"I would advise against any further attempts to leave in order to save your dying Queen Mother," Plagueis announced. "Until I let you all go, that control pad will be guarded by me personally with my abilities.

"Now, aside from your continued thoughts as to how you could leave to save Her Majesty, another question that is probably broiling in your minds is why I didn't just take over the Consortium at any previous point in my stay in this palace. Again, the answer is simple: I was completely willing to allow your Queen Mother to live out the last of her reign, so long as it didn't interfere with my plans to take over all of reality. As it was, she proved to be enough of a nuisance that forced me to take over your precious government.

"If anyone has any problems with my ruling of the Consortium, you can take it to me personally. Every other leader across the sixty-three worlds will also hear these words, and I will make sure that there will be absolutely no dissent or treachery to my rule... for there is no greater threat than I, Darth Plagueis the Immortal.

"Oh, and one last thing. To all of you who are loyal, either to your Queen Mother or to any Ducha who might wish to replace her in this monarchy, do not react. As for the rest... Phaa Anor, you and your agents in this room may all reveal yourselves."

There was hesitation on the part of the disguised spies and murmured worryings from those who really were what they appeared to be. But eventually, the spies all reached for their noses to pinch at them, sending their ooglith masquers slithering down their forms to expose their true nature as Yuuzhan Vong.

In spite of Plagueis's command not to react, every Hapan there all screamed and instinctively backed away from the aliens, including the guards, who were trained to level their blasters up at the enemy. But before any of them could take any shots, the guns were suddenly yanked out of their hands and raised to the ceiling thanks to a literal slight of hand from Plagueis, who then flicked his wrist and caused all of the blasters to blow up by overloading their power packs. This raised a fresh new chorus of screaming from the Hapans.

Plagueis soon declared, after the screams died down, "Now, shall we begin my eternal reign?"


	32. Chapter 32

"To start off my everlasting reign over all of reality," Plagueis said, "I'd like to address someone who would wish to see me isolated permanently in the reality from which I was freed." He reached out a hand and from the crowd, Dr. Quyi Cavaz was lifted into the air, her arms and legs splayed out as far as they would go from her body.

With an inward movement of his fingers, Plagueis used the Force to send the scientist flying toward him, abruptly stopping just a few inches from him. "Doctor Cavaz," he loudly announced for all to hear, "as I just stated, I'm quite aware of that handheld Reality Travel Device that you were creating with the intent of returning me to the dimension from where I took over the Yuuzhan Vong there. Now, let's be clear, even if you had been given the six months needed to finish that portable RTD, I would probably only be trapped in that reality for a limited period of time, no matter how long it would be." He indicated with a nod to the Yuuzhan Vong in the crowd. "And even if you did destroy the RTD that you created to return me to this reality, another one will take its place, considering that the RTD back in the dimension where I took over the Yuuzhan Vong will still be functional."

With a defeated look, Cavaz said, "Them maybe I could've sent you to a barren wasteland of a reality where you'd have no resources to come up with an RTD, even if you did have complete knowledge of how interdimensional engineering works."

Plagueis's smirk became patronizing. "Such a shame that opportunity will never come now," he retorted. "But then, even if you did consider sending me to a reality like that, I would still have the Force. And the Force is a powerful ally; it can help me with whatever I need, for I can even turn sand into the most complex RTD needed."

"You're bluffing," Cavaz spat.

"Am I?" Plagueis countered, his arrogant tone never fading. "It gave me immortality. The ability and knowledge to put together an RTD from viable resources is insignificant next to the power of the Force. But anyway, here's the question I have for you: why should I not just kill you and eliminate the possibility of you continuing your progress on the RTD entirely?"

Cavaz thought hurriedly, her expression going from angry to nervous in an instant. But even with the few seconds that Plagueis wordlessly afforded her, she spoke out quickly. "Because it's not necessary."

"Explain."

"You could just imprison me," Cavaz elaborated. "I'd be trapped down in the Palace's dungeon for the rest of my life, unable to continue my work in any capacity."

"Indeed, you would," Plagueis acknowledged in a formal tone. Then he looked past Cavaz down to Poik. "And may I assume, chamberlain, that you wouldn't attempt to break out your accomplice so that she may continue her work?"

Every Hapan in the room looked at Poik curiously, and she appeared to shrink in the crowd.

"I doubt your guards, whether they'd be Hapan or Yuuzhan Vong, would be outwitted by a simple chamberlain," Cavaz proclaimed.

"Fair point. Well, Doctor, I have to say, your argument has convinced me. For the only real reason that I will let you live is so that I can have more to rule when I complete my takeover of all reality. Oh, sure, I can easily bring others back from the dead, which gives me control even of death itself, but even so, the dead is so less satisfying to rule over compared to the living."

Cavaz then went flying back screaming as she plowed down into the crowd, collapsing two guards beneath her.

"The two of you," Plagueis pointed at the guards once they managed to get back to their feet with the scientist, "put her in the dungeon." He then pointed that same hand at the control pad, which opened up the throne room door.

Again, a few Hapans tried to escape, only to fall back against the floor again - although this time not eliciting the same domino effect as before - after they reached the threshold of the door.

"Force-shield," Plagueis informed the crowd. "I will only open a hole for these guards and Doctor Cavaz large enough for them to leave through, and it won't be open a second longer." He then narrowed his gaze down at the guards and Cavaz again. "And don't try to locate or help your Queen Mother; she is dying and there's nothing that any of you can do to help her anyway. Disobeying my order will result in all of your deaths, and they will be in vain if you think they will be noble sacrifices for your obsolete monarch. Is that understood?"

The guards both nodded. Cavaz didn't respond, but any acknowledgement on her part was unnecessary anyway; there was nothing she could do at this point.

"Good," Plagueis said. He turned his attention back to the crowd in general. "And any who would take advantage of this opportunity to try to escape, or even start a riot, will suffer a quick and painful death in my hand before you know what will happen to you. Now go."

Just as he said those last two words, he pointed directly at the door closed off only by his invisible Force-shield and the crowd parted to either side unwillingly before the similarly-unseen swipe that Plagueis sent. Even the Yuuzhan Vong, who Plagueis ruled, were just as startled from what just happened, but none of them said anything.

Nevertheless, Cavaz and the guards turned for the door before they walked through the clear path that had opened for them. Once they were gone, the throne room door itself closed, and Plagueis leveled his gaze down on Poik.

"And as for you," he said, "even if I would prefer to rule over as much living as possible, I think I would be gracious enough to the rest of the Hapans in this room if I informed them that you had intended to assassinate your Queen Mother."

While not every Hapan gasped in shock at this, it was still a terrifying majority going against Poik.

"Hence, in order to at least somewhat stunt each of these Hapans' hatred against me," Plagueis elaborated, "I should just let them kill you." He looked away from her. "Which of you will do the honors?"

In response, a shot from a blaster rang out, Poik collapsed to the floor dead with a scorching hole in the center of her back, and just a few meters behind her, a vengeful-looking guard stood there holding a blaster with a smoking muzzle where the chamberlain stood.

"Did that hamper your frustrations at all?" Plagueis asked that guard.

"A little," the guard growled.

Plagueis gave her a smirk. "Of course it did," he said.


	33. Chapter 33

It was all hopeless. There was nothing Allana could do now but accept that and vainly nurse the scorched stump of her right hand in the all-encompassing agony she felt right now. Everyone she loved was dead, and in a short time from now, she felt, she would join them in the Force; not all of them, of course, for her mother was beyond anyone's reach but Plagueis's, but she could finally see at least most of those who mattered to her. Meanwhile, Plagueis would cement his official authority over the Consortium, and not only would this galaxy fall to his tyrannical whims, but so would every other galaxy, in every other reality.

The only good thing to come out of all this was that her pain would finally end; and not just what Plagueis had inflicted upon her, but the pain she suffered since her grandparents and Aunt Jaina died. She could finally see everyone she had lost. All she had to do was close her eyes, which she already did, let this pain consume her completely, and let it all go.

_No_, an elderly male voice said with the echoing tone of the Force. _Don't give in, Allana. Get back up and stand firm_.

Allana's eyes flashed open and she called out loud, "Why?"

_Because you must_, the voice replied.

"And what if I don't?"

_Then all that you, your friends, family, and allies will have fought for will be for naught_.

"But... I can't. I just can't. I can't do it anymore. I can't go on like this."

_I feel your pain. I know how much you want it to all just go away. But if you just let it all end here, all of reality will fall_.

"Let it fall then."

_You know that that can't happen. Darth Plagueis must be stopped at all costs, so that no one will ever have to suffer like you have suffered ever again. Find your strength, Allana. Please, for all that exists, find it, learn from your father's mistakes, don't let the dark side of the Force consume you, and stand firm._

That was the last that Allana ever heard from the voice; the voice of her great-grandfather, Anakin Skywalker.

She could defy him, she knew. She could just ignore all that he just said and die right here, right now. But before she even knew it, something inside her - something not motivated by the Force, something not manipulated by the spirits of long-dead Force-sensitives like her great-grandfather - had moved her to action.

Allana found her strength, and she used it to stand up and stand firm, not ignoring the physical, mental, and emotional pain still embroiled in her, but using it to take her where she needed to go. Her desires weren't fueled by the dark side, but were driven by the objective fact that nothing - whether it'd be a single world or all of reality - should ever fall into the hands of a power-hungry maniac like Darth Plagueis.

So, stimulated by her new motivation to not die, Allana rushed to the window in Plagueis's quarters that she destroyed with his cabin's door and leaped out. She plummeted a few stories before cushioning her landing with the Force, rolling forward on her good arm for several meters before jumping back up to her feet. Without losing momentum, she sprinted straight across the Fountain Palace's garden and for the meters-tall gate that surrounded the grand building. All it took from her was a simple burst of the Force vault up and over that gate and to the freedom offered by Hapes's forests.

.

Sometime after Plagueis decided to let everyone but himself in the throne room go - knowing that they couldn't save their precious Queen Mother even if they tried their best - he stiffened on the throne when he sensed what should have been impossible.

Standing up and using the Force to levitate himself - a feat that was difficult for him back when he was mortal - over to one of the room's windows, he saw the retreating form of Allana Djo Solo running away from the Palace and to the woods in the distance.

Plagueis growled angrily. She should be dead by now. And with her still alive somehow, and not likely to die anytime soon, even he couldn't cement his authority even pseudo-properly until the girl was dead.

He was prepared to deliver a blast of power against the viewport before him when an all-too familiar voice spoke in his mind.

_Don't bother, Plagueis_, Allana's voice came. _You'll only waste your time and make your own downfall easier for me. Enjoy your reign while it lasts, because I don't think it'll last past the week, never mind the rest of eternity_.

Plagueis didn't know what to do or say then. Clearly, the Queen Mother had a plan to defeat him, but she wouldn't do so by interfering in his rule over the Hapes Consortium; not until she put that plan into action, anyway. But he couldn't send anyone out to kill her, for if anyone other than himself knew about Allana's continued existence...

The Sith Lord then slapped his head in realization, even if he couldn't feel the pain thanks to his immortality. No _Hapan_ would obey him if they realized that their queen was still alive. But when it came to the Yuuzhan Vong in the Palace...

Hurriedly, Plagueis took out his commlink and keyed it for his top agent's frequency. "Phaa Anor?"

"Yes, Lord Plagueis?"

"Are you anywhere in the Palace where someone could overhear this conversation?"

"No, My Lord. I'm in my quarters, and I've already swept it for listening devices; the search has come up clear. What is thy bidding?"

"The Queen Mother is still alive, and she's heading for the planet's forests. Send out however many of your agents you deem necessary to hunt her down and kill her at once."

"Of course, My Lord. I will send out my very best," Phaa Anor assured his worried Sith Master.


	34. Chapter 34

Even with the inner strength she mustered to escape the Fountain Palace, Allana was still dying; if she didn't get that cauterized stump of her right hand treated, she would collapse from shock soon, she knew, and pass away. And in the midst of Hapes's forests, that treatment was unlikely to come to her aid. If only she decided to treat herself with the Palace's medical supplies before she left...

No, she couldn't have even if she thought of that to begin with. Plagueis would've sensed her renewed vigor and would have come after her, even if it meant exposing the fact that the Consortium's Queen Mother wasn't as close to death as the Sith Lord would have everyone in the Palace believe. Then again, the Sith could've just sent some of his Yuuzhan Vong to kill her without revealing that Allana wasn't just on the edge of life.

She was cold now. The pain from the stump had numbed, although Allana doubted that that was a good thing. She now stumbled along the forest floor, and in the process, she caught a reflection of herself in a small stream. Her skin was now almost bleach-white. The now-renegade Queen Mother stumbled further away from that reflection and came to lean against a tree to rest, her head hung low as she hastily wondered what she could do to save herself from her scorched wound.

Then something entered her dazed senses. She looked up and ahead in the distance to find what looked like a small campsite, with a yellow tent already established and a minor pit dug up to place some firewood in. Hopefully, the campers, whether they were there or not right now, had some medical supplies that she could use.

Not knowing whether or not this was just a hallucination at this point, and not even caring either, Allana forcefully pushed herself off and away from the tree to stumble toward the campsite. She was halfway there before she fell forward, on the verge of falling unconscious, before she forced herself to begin crawling the rest of the way toward the campsite. Allana held up for two minutes, enough time to finally reach the campsite and turn on her back.

She didn't have it in her anymore, even with the support her great-grandfather offered her. Her vision now blurred, the unconsciousness that would ultimately lead to death closing in on her. But before her vision faded completely, she saw two figures - Hapan women, Allana judged with her dazed mind, holding firewood in their arms - standing over her. The figures dropped what they were carrying away from Allana and leaned down to pick her up.

Then darkness overtook the Queen Mother's being.

.

When Allana awoke, she found herself staring up at what appeared to be a yellow sky before quickly realizing that she was inside a tent; the same tent she discovered before passing out. She was lying down, her form encased in a sleeping bag, and with a bacta patch over her stump of a right hand. She sat up, getting herself out of the sleeping bag, before crawling to the tent's exit and unzipping it.

Outside were the blonde and brunette women who saved Allana, their backs turned to her as they were sitting and reading something on their datapads in front of the pit they placed their firewood in. Both Hapans turned their heads from their datapads to face Allana and they shared the same smile as they looked at her.

"Ah, Your Majesty," the one on the left, the blonde, said. "We weren't expecting to recover from your injury for another half hour."

"Well, the Force is a powerful ally," Allana said as she crawled the rest of the way out the tent to stand up. "It speeds up the healing process quite drastically."

Both women now looked up at their Queen Mother with concern, standing up with her. "Uh, Your Highness," the brunette said, "you should really get back inside to rest and recover."

Allana waved them off. "Thank you, but you've already done enough for me, the both of you," she told them. "The Force has seen to it that you would both save me, and you have. Now I must take my leave, for it's not safe for me to be here in any one spot longer than necessary in these woods."

The women looked at her confused. "Why can't you return to the Fountain Palace?" the blonde asked.

"Long story," Allana replied. "Point is, you may want to stay out of the civilized parts of this planet for quite a while. I think it'll probably be safe by the end of the week."

"We don't understand," the brunette stated.

"You will, in time," Allana said. "Now, again, thank you, and farewell." She turned to leave, heading for the direction she knew led further away from the Fountain Palace.

"But, Your Majesty-"

The blonde was cut off from speaking further by the sound of a blaster bolt. Allana swiveled around to see what had happened, and the blonde collapsed prone to the ground just as her counterpart also turned to see what had happened.

There, standing with a blaster leveled where the blonde was standing, was a Yuuzhan Vong.

The Vong quickly aimed his blaster for the brunette and promptly gunned her down, too, before targeting Allana.

But before the alien could squeeze off a shot, the Queen Mother shoved out her left hand to violently unearth the ground beneath the Vong's feet. His shot went wild as he went flying backwards in an end-over-end tumble, which met its finish when his head connected with a satisfying _crack!_ against the tree he was headed for. His corpse dropped to the ground on its buttocks.

Even after the alien died, Allana knew it wasn't over. And although she couldn't feel their presences in the Force, she knew that there were at least five other Vong headed her way, closing in on all directions just by the sound of their crunching footsteps.

Wait, how did she know that there were five exactly? She couldn't judge that well.

But before she could question it further, she saw another of the aliens appear from behind a bush and fire off a shot for her. She ducked to the ground, where the shot whizzed by overhead to strike another of the Vong behind her squarely in his ridged forehead.

Allana then threw out her good hand for the alien whose shot barely missed her and used the Force to manipulate his blaster so that its muzzle was now pointed beneath his chin. Before the Vong could stop the process, his finger had already squeezed the trigger, and he fell back dead thanks to the scorch beneath his head.

Three down, three to go.

Using the Force again to propel herself straight for the treetops, Allana landed on a thick branch and turned to look down, where the remaining Vong arrived to survey the bodies of their dead colleagues and the women; as well, they also clearly wondered where the Queen Mother was.

Taking advantage of their distracted wonderment, Allana Force-blasted the branch she stood on, ripping it from its tree so that it plummeted to the ground. And as she fell with it, she used her powers to guide the branch toward the Vong trio, who had just looked up in response to the loud noise that the branch made when it was broken off.

The aliens quickly turned and attempted to run off. Only two of them turned their heads to see just how close the branch was before they flattened themselves to the ground, while their comrade, who kept running, had the back of his head bashed by the branch.

Allana didn't have time to guide the branch to kill the last two Vong, as she had to release her hold on it to cushion her crouched landing to the ground. Meanwhile, the branch went flying freely along with the dead Vong whose head it crushed once they both landed on the ground.

As Allana stood back up to her full height, the remaining Vong turned to their backs and, not bothering to stand up, leveled their blasters for her. They fired off a shot each, but Allana had already erected a Force-shield around her that dissipated the bolts harmlessly. With considerable effort, she maintained that invisible shield as she walked toward her attackers, who only kept firing vainly at her.

Half a minute later, Allana reached them, and extended her Force-shield outward so that it sent both Vong flying back again, their blasters flying away from their hands in the process. One of the aliens landed on his back so that his neck hit the branch that Allana used to kill one of them, snapping it in an instant. The remaining Vong hit the ground in a backward roll over his shoulder before leaping back up to his feet.

The alien then unleashed a vibroblade from his holster and charged the Queen Mother with a loud battle cry. Allana just stood there, letting her surviving opponent approach her, before leaping up over the strike meant for her throat so that she landed on his other side. Before he could turn around to face her, the queen leaped up again so that she tackled him to the ground with both her arms wrapped around his neck. She pinned her elbows against his arms so that he couldn't use his vibroknife against her, and kept the pressure on for fifteen seconds before the struggling Vong went limp in her arms.

Then, after she released her hold on him, Allana grabbed his vibroknife with her good hand and stabbed it through the back of his neck for good measure.

Now armed with a weapon - as she absentmindedly left her lightsaber back in Plagueis's quarters - Allana turned back to her previous direction and walked a few paces before seeing a parked airspeeder there.

It then came to her. Whatever was going to happen that she at least hoped would lead to Plagueis's defeat, Allana knew that was going to need some supplies if she's going to hide out in the woods. So she trotted back over to the corpses of the campers, looked among their clothing to find their keys, which she found on the blonde, then headed over to their tent.

Within a matter of minutes, she had all the food, water, and medkits that the deceased women had at their camp loaded into their speeder. Allana then leaped into the pilot seat of the vehicle, turned it on, and with guidance from the Force, she strode off in the direction she intended to walk to originally.


	35. Chapter 35

With his Vongsense, Plagueis, still sitting in the throne he stole from the Queen Mother, felt each of the six agents that Phaa Anor sent out to find Djo Solo die off one by one somewhere out in Hapes's forests. And in the end, the little brat survived the fight she had with all of them.

Angrily, he took out his commlink and keyed it to his top agent's frequency. "Phaa Anor?"

"Yes, Lord Plagueis?"

"Your agents are dead, and they have failed their mission."

"My apologies, My Lord," Phaa Anor replied worriedly. "I shall double up the next strike team-"

"No need," Plagueis interrupted. "It'll only be a waste of time and resources. It's clear that whatever the Queen Mother is planning or waiting for, she won't return to the Palace until it happens."

"So what are you saying we should do then, Lord Plagueis?"

"With the Queen Mother? Nothing. As for the rest of the Consortium, I must let the Duchas across the sixty-three worlds know about my rule, and inform them the inevitable consequences to betraying my rule in any way. But first, I must contact Head of State Reige of the Imperial Remnant to let him know what is going on. It's best to get past the easiest situations as soon as possible before delving into the difficult ones."

"Understood," Phaa Anor stated.

Plagueis then killed the communication and keyed it to a different one. "Quraq?"

"Yes, Lord Plagueis?" Unlike Phaa Anor's obedient tone, Ulik Quraq, the former adviser of the last Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium, sounded bitter and reluctant to take orders from an alien male, especially now that she was demoted from the prestigious position of adviser to the meager niche of chamberlain.

"I need you to establish a holographic frequency between myself and Imperial Head of State Reige at once," Plagueis commanded.

"Yes, Lord Plagueis," Quraq answered with the same tone.

Plagueis killed that frequency, replaced the commlink in its resident pouch on his belt, and waited.

A few minutes later, Quraq arrived in the throne room pushing a hovergurney with a holographic transceiver mounted on its surface. She stopped it at the foot of the dais that led up to the throne and turned the transceiver on, waiting for the response.

Ten seconds passed before the blue-hued image of the Imperial Remnant's Head of State Vitor Reige appeared. His expression went from curious and expectant, as he was obviously expecting to respond to the Queen Mother, to even more curious but shocked when he saw who was occupying the Hapan throne.

"Head of State Reige," Plagueis cut in before the human could let loose with the questions he had, "I am Darth Plagueis the Immortal, the latest and final ruler of the Hapes Consortium, for I shall reign for the rest of eternity. Queen Mother Djo Solo is now dead and I have taken her place properly, for I have been the true power behind the Hapan throne since Tenel Ka Djo died."

"And how do I know that everything you're saying is true, Darth Plagueis?" Reige asked.

The Sith Lord smirked. "Why should you not?"

"Because even if the Queen Mother is dead, as you so claim," Reige said, "I would think that someone like an adviser or any random Ducha would replace the bloodline before a male Muun such as yourself."

"Oh, but times have changed, Head of State," Plagueis said. "I have taken the throne for myself. No one would dare go against me. And even if they did, they wouldn't last long, for I am guaranteed victory in any battle thanks to my immortality."

"Is this a joke?" Reige asked. "Because if it is, I really don't have time-"

"This is no joke, Reige," Plagueis enunciated. "I am now the monarch of the Hapes Consortium, and you will address me as such, lest I personally come over to Bastion, destroy any and all defenses you will level against me, kill you, and then replace you with a Moff who will do what I say without question. And that's if you get me really mad."

Reige snorted. "Impossible. You're bluffing."

"Don't test me," Plagueis intoned.

"You haven't really given me any good reason as to why I shouldn't," Reige retorted.

Plagueis growled. "Very well." He then reached out with one hand and squeezed.

In response, Reige clutched at his throat with both hands and struggled to breathe. Plagueis allowed this to go on for a quarter of a minute before releasing his Force-hold on the Head of State's airway, letting him gasp a great lungful of air in between coughs.

"Question me again, Head of State Reige, and I will make good on my threat to come to Bastion and personally see to it that you are replaced," he said.

Reige swallowed, fearful now. "What do you want?"

"Just to make sure the alliance you established with Queen Mother Djo Solo is still as strong as it ever was," he said. "At least until the end of this war with the New Rebellion and its allies."

Reige's eyebrows were raised in surprise. "In that case, I honestly don't see why this alliance should be dissolved." Plagueis could practically hear him repress the last word: _yet_.

The Sith Lord smiled in a mocking mimicry of a pleasant grin. "Then that is all I needed to speak to you about, Head of State. Have a nice day." He then used the Force to shut the frequency down himself, dropping that smile the second the communication was off.

"Now raise me Ducha Requud's frequency, chamberlain," Plagueis demanded of Quraq.

The former adviser nodded wordlessly, and with her expression remaining neutral, belaying the hatred she felt for her tyrannical oppressor, which he could feel all too clearly through the Force. Nevertheless, she fulfilled her duty, and soon, Requud's blue-hued visage appeared, her expression going from expectant to shocked in an instant once she saw Plagueis.

The Sith Lord waved her off from speaking and prepared to give her the same short opening speech he gave Reige.

He only hoped she'd be a little easier than the Head of State. But something - not the Force, exactly, but something - told him that wouldn't be the case.


	36. Chapter 36

Reige sighed and sat back in his office chair after the holographic transmission with Plagueis ended.

"You are not actually going to follow his orders, are you, sir?" Reige's Chiss sycophant Kthira'shi'ktarloo - Ashik being his core name - inquired from his seat in one of the office's rear corners.

The Head of State looked from the inactive transceiver to the Chiss. "As a matter of fact, I am, Ashik."

"What?!" Ashik asked.

"He's a Sith Lord," Reige elaborated with a terrified intensity in his tone. "At first, I thought he may have just been a poser, but then you saw what he just did to me. A few more seconds, and I could have passed out and died from lack of oxygen!"

"Well, even so, you cannot determine whether or not he really is immortal-"

"Actually, I can," Reige interrupted. "There were rumors that Plagueis used his immortality to wipe out the entire Jedi Order in one swift stroke in the battle of Coruscant that struck off this war. I dismissed those rumors as just that; rumors. But now, I think it's best if we do as Plagueis says and maintain this alliance."

"You don't think Plagueis is just taking advantage of these rumors and the fear he just inspired in you, sir?" Ashik asked.

"Let me put it this way," Reige intoned. "If he wasn't immortal, he wouldn't be on that throne right now. After all, the Hapans would've done everything in their power, bring all their weapons to bear against him, before they let a male alien even try to rule them, regardless of whether or not their Queen Mother is dead."

"Very well," Ashik conceded reluctantly. "So you'll only let this alliance run until the end of this war, right?"

Reige made a worried face. "I think it's safe if we make it past that. I have a bad feeling that Plagueis will destroy the entire government if I make any treacherous actions against him, whether during or after the war."

"The entire government, or just yourself, sir?" Ashik asked with a raised eyebrow.

The Head of State looked at his sycophant with consternation. "Is there really a difference, Ashik?" he retorted.

"No, Head of State Reige," Ashik answered with a slight mocking tone to his otherwise diplomatic facade. "There is not."

"Indeed, there isn't," Reige backed up, as if to verify the Chiss's words and remove that unmistakeable sarcasm from Ashik's tone. The human then looked away from the alien and to the sole viewport that looked out over Bastion's capital city, contemplating the future of his government.

.

Over the next two days, the civilian HoloNet was occupied by the news of Darth Plagueis's cementing of his reign over the Hapes Consortium. It was mainly him traveling to some of the Transitory Mists' sixty-three worlds to wipe out the Duchas who dared to resist his rule, immediately replacing them with fearful puppet leaders who would kowtow to his every whim.

By the end of those two days, Plagueis's campaign in firmly establishing his rule had ended. All it took was the cumulative deaths of five Duchas, all personally killed by him and him alone, which told everyone else that he was not to be trifled with on any level.

Allana couldn't help but agree with that sentiment as she read the datapad she got from one of the campers, sitting up just beside the women's airspeeder. Even with the confidence she felt that she could still somehow defeat Plagueis, her face fell into a frown as she began to wonder if there really was a way to see to the Sith Lord's downfall.

_Stand firm, Allana_, a voice not belonging to Anakin Skywalker said through the Force.

The self-exiled Queen Mother looked up and her jaw dropped in seeing who it was, unable to believe who it was when he heard his voice just then; her father, Jacen Solo, his form silhouetted as a spirit. His expression lacked any of the dark or evil that people like Allana came to associate with Darth Caedus in place of the man she never knew was her father beforehand; now he carried a worried expression, silently indicating that he did not want his daughter to give up.

Not when Plagueis was so close to being defeated.

That was all the assurance Allana got before her father faded back into the Force.

And even then, she still wasn't a hundred percent confident. Not even remotely close.

.

The New Rebellion forces hanging over Sacorria, led here by Commander Eldo Davip, were all startled on and on the verge of opening fire on the Chiss fleet that dropped out of hyperspace from the direction of the Unknown Regions. But Davip managed to corral his own fleet from spouting even one projectile from the alien vessels as soon as his own ship, the _Harrier_, received a comm transmission from one of the Ascendancy Star Destroyers.

The holographic transmission showing the blue-hued form of a surprisingly-human male was what came up on the _Harrier_'s bridge. "Commander Davip," the man on the other end said, "I am General Soontir Fel of the Chiss Expansionary Defense Force. I believe we are working against a mutual enemy in the Hapes Consortium and the Imperial Remnant. Would you like another ally to boot?"

Davip was hesitant in his reply. "Well... how do I know that your offer of alliance is genuine, General Fel?"

Fel couldn't help but smile, albeit with somewhat of an edge, as if he were hiding something, Davip could tell. "If you feel as if I'm untrustworthy, Commander, why don't you redirect me to General Wedge Antilles and/or Captain Mirax Horn to see if my fleet and I are, how you say, legit."

Davip swallowed nervously. "Very well..."

A few minutes later, Davip had established a four-way holographic transmission with himself, Fel, General Antilles, and Captain Horn. A few minutes after that, they all easily worked out their deal in the alliance - especially considering the friendliness that Antilles and Horn displayed to Fel - and it became official that the Ascendancy had now entered the New Rebellion's war against the Hapans and the Imperials.

"Oh, before we close it out completely," Fel said, "we have two other parties associated with the Ascendancy who may wish to know that you may accept them into the New Rebellion's alliance."

"Put 'em on then, Soontir," Horn said.

Fel nodded, and a few moments later, the visages of Jacen Solo and Jaden Korr made it into a six-way holographic frequency.

And in that instant, Horn and Antilles's moods soured.

"Hello, Master Korr," Horn said, her tone restrained. "Jacen Solo."

"I understand your obvious reluctance to have you join us, Captain Horn, Admiral Antilles," Korr acknowledged. "But you have to understand, the situation is a lot worse than it really appears."

"So it would seem," Antilles commented. "And if you're talking about Darth Plagueis's takeover of the Hapes Consortium, we already got that much."

"Then it's all the more imperative that you allow us to join you," Solo put in. "Both the Jedi and my team have a way to defeat Plagueis even with his immortality."

Horn and Antilles were silent for a moment before saying in unison, "We're listening."

After Solo and Korr finished explaining, Antilles said, "You're right. We should allow you to join us." His tone was still reluctant, but much less so now. "What do you think, Captain?"

"I agree, unfortunately," she said, sounding resigned. "Very well, you may both join us, Master Korr and Mister Solo."


	37. Chapter 37

No one deigned to question Darth Plagueis the Immortal when he called for seventy-five percent of the Hapes Consortium's military and fifty percent of the Imperial Remnant's forces to gather in the Hapes system. The process took about four days in total, leaving a good portion of the rest of the Transitory Mists and Remnant space mostly bare. But again, to question Plagueis over his decisions was to court death, as all under his rule knew.

By the seventh day of the immortal Sith Lord's rule - by the end of the week - a fleet of New Rebellion, Mandalorian, Confederation, and Chiss Ascendancy warships dropped out of hyperspace from the direction of the Outer Rim.

Thus, the Battle of Hapes, the conflict that would finally end the Third Galactic Civil War, begun as soon as both sides began trading projectiles from their capital ships and spewing out starfighters in the process. The space throughout the entirety of the Hapes system quickly became littered with deadly bolts, proton torpedoes, concussion missiles, brief explosions, and debris of all kinds in a matter of seconds before settling down to a more steady but still violent pace.

Amidst the clawcraft launched from the hangar bays of the Chiss's Star Destroyers, a lone Imperial shuttle that would've looked more in place with the enemy dropped out and zoomed from the planet up ahead. The pilot expertly dodged through friendly and enemy fire alike, as well as debris from both sides, in his bid to reach Hapes and see to it that he and his team would accomplish their mission. Very few times did the shuttle have to launch any projectiles to defend itself, and it lost pursuit wherever it found any.

"Are you sure Onimi will be able to distract Plagueis from sensing us, Solo?" Jaden called from the shuttle's lounge area, crammed with the rest of the Jedi there.

"He'll do his job but good, Master Korr!" Jacen nearly shouted back without turning away from the viewport or otherwise deferring concentration from piloting his ship for Hapes. "Plagueis won't be our problem 'til we enter the Palace! Now quit distracting me!" At that, he swerved the shuttle away from an incoming proton torpedo before launching a few laser bolts for the Miy'til fighter that had spewed the torp.

"Hey, Jacen!" Vergere called.

"What is it?!" Jacen called, still not turning his attention from his piloting.

"Why can't you just use your powers to teleport us over to the Fountain Palace quickly and safely?" she asked.

"The energy release from committing such an act will pierce through the screen Onimi would or has established for us!" Jacen called back. "Plagueis will sense us and we'll lose the element of surprise!" He swiveled away from an incoming TIE fighter.

.

Allana remained hidden and on the move even as she felt activity and presences in the system gradually increase, knowing all along that Plagueis was up to something big. Now, after feeling the sudden spike through the Force of innumerable presences enter the system of her homeworld, she looked up and instantly saw Hapes's skies come alight with fiery projectiles by the silhouetted ships there. Aiding the beautiful yet grizzly scene above were the horrible sensations of beings dying, all coming through Allana's Force-senses, because of Plagueis's dastardly machinations.

_It's time_, she heard the voice of her father say to her.

Without saying another word, she leaped up from her sitting position against the side of the airspeeder door that led into the pilot seat, and jumped straight into it. She quickly revved up the engines and sped off back for the Fountain Palace, letting the Force guide her actions to make up for her general lack of experience in driving.

First thing once she got back: retrieve her lightsaber from Plagueis's quarters.

.

Plagueis never had the opportunity to enjoy the view of the battle over Hapes from his throne room once it started, for he felt the presences of beings he once killed.

Standing up from his austere chair, he looked around the room, carefully reaching for the lightsaber hooked on his belt. "Where are you?" he called, a sense of fear accompanying his voice, even though nothing could harm him, much less kill him.

Instead of receiving a real answer, as he didn't really expect anyway, the Sith Lord was quickly greeted by the sight of Jedi Grand Master Kenth Hamner suddenly manifesting across the room. The elderly human male offered up an arrogant smile that, at the back of his mind, Plagueis knew must've irritated all those who hated him when he gave it to them.

Before the immortal Muun could say anything to what he came to figure was a spirit, his eyes widened and his mouth dropped when he saw the forms of other Jedi begin to form around him. At either side of Hamner manifested Master Cilghal and Knight Raynar Thul, who were then accompanied by even more figures - Masters Zekk, Barratk'l, and the other Jedi Council members; then came the Knights who began to form a tight layered ring throughout the room so that Plagueis was now surrounded by them.

In less than a minute, Plagueis was completely surrounded by every Jedi he had ever killed back on Coruscant all those months ago. Growling, the Sith Lord looked back over all the newly-arrived spirits to level his gaze back down upon Hamner, who maintained that arrogant smirk.

But then Plagueis quickly came to his senses and reaffirmed his own grin. "Oh, come now, departed Jedi," he said to all of them, sweeping his arms across the grand room. "You can't do anything to me. And I can just as well vanquish you all, just as I did to Tenel Ka Djo's soul.

"How could any of you not know that I am unbeatable anyway?! Everyone in this galaxy knows that!"

"We may not be able to beat you," Hamner said, "but then, we don't have to."

Plagueis's gaze became confused.

But before either Hamner or any of the other dead Jedi could elaborate, they swarmed him, their spirits completely encompassing his body so that he now swam in the trap they made of their ghostly forms.

And while he may not be harmed, he was still entrapped, he knew, and he had to break out. But for the life of him, he didn't know why the same power he used to banish Tenel Ka Djo's spirit into the realm he created wasn't working on all these other spirits; it must be the overwhelming force going against him, he thought.

So now, with his powers all but hindered at this point, how could an immortal, one who can never die, defeat the departed, who have already been gathered into death's cold embrace?

.

Jacen fought to keep the shuttle from burning up in Hapes's atmosphere as he tried to maintain a relatively stable descent amidst the projectiles and debris that threatened to buckle the ship's shields and destroy it and everyone inside.

"Keep those TIEs and Miy'tils off our tail, Nommy!" Jacen urged, still not taking his attention away from the descent.

"I'm doing my best!" Nom Anor argued from the copilot seat, also not taking his focus away as he chugged the shuttle's laser cannons to hit the starfighters trying to take them out first.

"Well, do your bester!" Jacen half-quipped.

Nommy simply ignored the bad grammar and maintained only his best on the task he was given under the circumstances.

Eventually, after a couple of minutes, the half-dozen enemy ships - half of them made of Imperial TIE fighters, the other three consisting of Miy'tils - were blown out of the sky just as the shuttle entered the stratosphere.

"Don't relax now, Nommy," Jacen said, noting the Yuuzhan Vong's lax posture in his seat from his periphery. "I see a few defense Miy'tils coming up from the rear now." By then, Jacen leveled the shuttle out so that it was coming in for a more steady arrival for the Fountain Palace now a few miles away.

Nom Anor groaned and rolled his eyes simultaneously in annoyance before sitting back up and lining his targeting reticle for the incoming ships.

A few minutes later, the ten Miy'tils were blown out of the sky before any of them could take down their target's renewed shields, and just in time for its soft landing for the front of the Fountain Palace; that was, after Nom Anor managed to blow out the automated sentry guns mounted on the Palace's roof.

Jacen then unfastened his safety harness and vacated seat, leaving it for Nom Anor to quickly take. The both of them knew that if the shuttle was attacked while Jacen and the Jedi were gone, the Yuuzhan Vong would pilot the ship to whatever safety he could find.

Seconds after Jacen left his seat, he headed back and ushered Jaden and the Jedi further back to make it for the landing ramp that Nom Anor, from the cockpit, managed to open up with the push of a button on the shuttle's console. Soon, every Force-sensitive aboard was out of the ship and heading for the Palace's front door up ahead.

Leading the charge next to Jaden, Jacen unleashed a powerful Force-blast that blew the large door leading into the Palace inward. Then, in unison, he and the rest of the Jedi unhooked and ignited their lightsabers from their belts, entering the grand building to ricochet the lethal bolts fired by the guards inside elsewhere in the entry foyer. It wasn't long before the group of Jedi had destroyed each weapon leveled at them and knocked out each of their owners without killing a single one of them.

"Let's move," Jacen said, leading the direction to one of the branching hallways that he knew, from his visits to the Palace back in his home reality, would lead to the hallway filled with turbolifts.

In a short matter of time, all of the Jedi had entered that hallway single-file to distribute themselves to each of the turbolifts, subsequently taking themselves up to the level that Jacen told them would lead them to the throne room.

And once again, as they did before on destroyed Coruscant, the entirety of the Jedi Order was about to face Darth Plagueis the Immortal.

.

Against the overwhelming forces of the Jedi spirits pressing in around him to the point that he felt like he was swimming through honey, Plagueis was actually beginning to lose hope in breaking away from his deceased captors. He started to wonder if he would actually be imprisoned for the rest of time, ruining any chance he had in taking over all of reality.

But then something happened amidst the crowd of spirits enveloping the Sith Lord's body. He couldn't see it, but he could feel it through the Force. Plagueis quickly reached out for it, just as the sensation - it felt like a crack in the army of spirits - seemed like it was trying to mend itself. He picked at it before it could heal up, and he used the Force to pry it open further.

And just like that, the whole facade crumbled so that all of the "spirits" disappeared, one-by-one, at a rapid pace until the spirit of Kenth Hamner, at the back of the disappeared crowd, manifested into that of a form that Plagueis was vaguely familiar with.

It was the deformed Yuuzhan Vong who was with the alternate reality version of Jacen Solo he encountered while inhabiting Ben Skywalker's body. And now he was a shimmering ghost staring back at Plagueis with a nervous smile.

"You!" the Sith Lord called.

"Me!" the dead Vong replied with the same wary expression.

Without saying anymore, Plagueis raised his arms and in a second, a ball of white light the size of three human heads combined appeared between his hands. He then threw it out toward the deformed alien ghost, which stopped halfway between them before expanding out to a white sheet that quickly encomapssed the room as a thick, blinding sheet separating both of the room's sides. That sheet then folded in on the spirit's direction, and Plagueis could feel the sheet encompassing his enemy before it disappeared, taking the ghost to the realm he sent Tenel Ka to.

The Sith Lord's triumphant smile quickly faded as soon as he felt the true presences now approaching the throne room from the outside.

The presences of the beginning of Jaden Korr and his new Jedi Order.

.

The Jedi party came to a stop meters away from either side of the throne room's closed entrance when Jacen abruptly halted in his tracks, bending down and groaning as he clutched both hands to his chest.

"Solo, what's wrong?" Jaden, standing next to him, asked.

"Onimi!" Jacen answered, taking his hands away from his torso and looking at the Grand Master with sadness. "Plagueis banished his spirit."

"What do you mean banished his spirit?" Jaden inquired.

"I'm not quite sure, but I can feel it," Jacen said. His face then went from grief-stricken to objective in an instant. "All I know is that, at this point, we're alone against Plagueis."

Jaden nodded with a resolute face. "Which means he can now sense us."

"Yes," Jacen answered soberly.

"Well, there goes our element of surprise," Peb Liko said from behind them. "So what do we do, just knock and let him invite us into the throne room?"

_You do not have to knock, Jedi_, Plagueis's voice echoed through the Force. _Come on right in_.

"Well, I guess that answers that," Peb commented dryly.

The Jedi renewed their travel for the throne room, and at Jacen and Jaden's leads, the door before them parted to allow them inside, letting the Jedi behind them join them.

And sitting on the Hapan throne on the other end of the room, with a determined expression replacing his usual arrogant smirk, was Darth Plagueis the Immortal.

"Welcome, Jedi," the Sith Lord said in a formal and polite tone. "I hope that this time, I will exterminate the last of you for good." He then stood up, brandished his lightsaber, and leaped to the center of the room, landing in a crouch before standing back up to his full height meters from Jacen and Jaden.

"Your move," Plagueis said.

Without any words, the Jedi behind them moved out and spread themselves around the throne room to form a loose circle around Plagueis. But before they could do anymore, the Sith Lord lunged and struck at both Jacen and Jaden with his crimson blade.

The two Jedi blocked his attack and blocked the next several strikes before Plagueis whirled away to strike at the Jedi who moved in against him. Thus, the duel began.

And it went on for five minutes, with Plagueis striking and blocking against what seemed like the innumerable Jedi blades he was confronted with. Granted, it didn't really matter all that much whether or not he was struck, for all the strikes that reached past his defenses did was knock him off course a little bit without doing even an iota of physical damage. That, in and of itself, was strange enough, as, typically, the blades would simply bounce off his form without even unbalancing him in the least.

Plagueis's own strikes, however, managed to sneak past several of the apprentices' defenses and graze them at their arms, legs, and their torsos; but never, at any point, did he manage to kill either of them like he so easily accomplished back on Coruscant.

"Keep it up, everyone!" Jacen called to the apprentices as he managed to trade a few strikes with Plagueis. "We're building power!"

It was true, Plagueis felt. Even with the injuries he was administering to his opponents, they were still gathering strength and power through the Force for what the Sith knew would be the activation of their plan against him. But how could this be, considering those aforementioned strikes he was delivering against each of them?

"I can see you're wondering, Plagueis!" Jaden called out as the Muun dueled several of the apprentices at once. "The Force is with us now! You can't wipe us out like you did on Coruscant! It ends here, with our victory this time!"

At that point, the five minutes were up, and each of the Jedi who were dueling Plagueis at the time flipped back from him to join their comrades in that circle they originally formed before the duel. They promptly deactivated their lightsabers, hooked them back to their belts, and joined hands to concentrate the build-up they accumulated to their Sith target.

Plagueis was about to unleash a wave that would have disintegrated them all, but found that he couldn't muster one. He tried it again, but still nothing came about.

Truly, the Force was on the Jedi's side, he realized.

Five seconds passed, and then the invisible wave unified by all the Jedi came at Plagueis, striking him every which way to the point that he actually _felt_ it physically.

It was then that he understood that he lost his immortality.

At the same time, however, each of the Jedi collapsed to the floor thanks to the injuries that Plagueis administered to them during the fight. Their pained groans and squirming were a delight to see even to a Sith who lost his ability to never die.

The now-relatively vulnerable Muun stepped over to where Jacen and Jaden fell, and leered down at them, his expression an odd mix of happiness and anger.

"You may have taken away my immortality, Jedi," he growled, "but in doing so, you left yourselves to death yourselves. And so, I will see that even in this _minor_ victory of yours-" it was clear he didn't think it was minor "-I will end the Jedi Order and claim ultimate victory for the Order of the Sith Lords!" He raised his lightsaber and prepared to deliver a decapitating strike that would've killed Jacen and Jaden near-simultaneously.

And now, they couldn't even rely on Nom Anor to help them, as Jacen could sense through his Vongsense that he was too preoccupied with flying the shuttle away from more defensive Miy'tils. Jacen couldn't even teleport out of here to get to the shuttle because his injuries prevented that from happening. Nor was he strong enough to send a minor flick against Plagueis's head to annoy him through the Force. So it was obvious that he couldn't even fall back on one of the backup plans of reaching out to activate the nanospiders he and the rest of his team got from Cilghal on the brief time they transported out of this reality, in between allying with the Chiss and allying with the New Rebellion, to get versions of nanospiders that released smaller explosions just for this purpose.

"I didn't let you get away with that before," the voice of a familiar little girl said at the throne room's exit, "and I won't now."

Plagueis looked from his would-be victims and bared his teeth angrily at Allana Djo Solo.

"You don't have the invincibility against my powers anymore, you little brat," Plagueis intoned.

"And you don't have your immortality anymore," Allana pointed out snidely. "Guess that means we're on even ground now."

"So it would seem," Plagueis said.

He then unleashed a battle cry as he leaped across the room to engage Allana. The Queen Mother leaped up at the same time to meet his strikes on her own terms, swiftly unhooking and activating her lightsaber with her remaining hand.

They traded blows on their blades as they fell the few meters back down to the room's floor, and without even dropping into crouches, they kept up the momentum that they just established to continue their duel to the very end.

Neither combatant - whether little girl or experienced Sith Lord - gave ground against each other as they went back and forth in attacks and defenses. Plagueis, though, worked extra hard to make sure that his young enemy wouldn't deliver any nonlethal wounds that would still put him out of commission and leave him all too vulnerable to a killing strike. Allana, however, was also at a slight disadvantage, considering that she wasn't fighting with her good hand; even so, it was impressive that she was still holding up against Plagueis as she was now.

As the duel progressed, the Jedi laying on the floor couldn't help but momentarily forget about their wounds to watch the duel with confounded looks, their expressions all wondering how a little girl could hold off a Sith Lord like this. Even Jaden was still surprised, even after all those months when he witnessed Allana defeat Plagueis after the rest of the Order died under the once-immortal Sith Lord.

However, the duel shifted once Plagueis's aggressive assault against Allana forced her to take a step back, finally taking advantage of the fact that she was slightly weaker in fighting with her left hand. She held her new spot for another few seconds before she had to step back again. And then again. And again. And again.

It wasn't long before Plagueis led the way out of the throne room. And as soon as Allana's form passed back through the threshold, Plagueis sneaked his blade past her defenses and struck at her lightsaber's pommel, slicing it in two and letting the Jedi blade disappear entirely.

_Stand firm now!_ the voice of Allana's father rang through her head.

Time seemed to slow down from Allana's perception as Plagueis's red blade headed to decapitate her. In response, moving at what the Queen Mother figured to be superhuman speed, she brought up her remaining hand to grab Plagueis's weapon wrist, stopping him from completing his strike, and then leaped upon him.

As time quickly reverted to its normal flow, Allana managed to extend her leap to tackle Plagueis back across the throne room to the point where he crashed back against the throne itself. Upon landing on it in a sitting position, his lightsaber clattered out of his hand and off to the side. Allana then took advantage of his mortal daze to clasp her hand and her stump across his head and bared her teeth in concentration for what was to come.

When she then allowed her mind to enter Plagueis's, Allana could already feel him fighting for his body's dominion. But she wasn't interested his control; no, she only wanted to target the one thing that the Sith Lord had left as his legacy to the Force.

The realm he created to banish Allana's mother, and now that deformed Yuuzhan Vong who helped that alternate version of her father save her from the Killiks.

Plagueis, seeing what his opponent was now after, scrambled in the realm of his mind to stop Allana from reaching the place where he trapped Tenel Ka. But he couldn't stop her; she already reached it, and she used all of her power to shatter it.

From there, the unleashed power brought upon by the destruction of what Plagueis created had come rushing back against its maker, working to destroy that which it had been corrupted to accomplish.

As quickly as it began, it was over. The both of them returned to reality with Plagueis screaming, "NOOOOOOO!" Simultaneously, bright white light shone from every major orifice on his body, which then crept across his form to completely encompass him.

His desperate scream continued even after he exploded from the light.

Allana flew back across the room to land dead center of the circle that the Jedi formed to rob Plagueis of his immortality. And as she landed, so, too, did the glowing pieces of his body, which soon faded to existence, along with his desperate scream.

No longer was Darth Plagueis the Immortal an immortal; he was now simply no more.

The Jedi who collapsed, their injuries now healed for the most part thanks to the Force, pushed themselves to their feet and surrounded the one who finally defeated Plagueis for good.

The little girl looked to the alternate version of her father with a sad smile. "I could hear him, hear the version of you," she whispered, "telling me... to stand firm." She closed her eyes.

And then, without warning, her body disappeared into the Force.


	38. Chapter 38

Onimi's spirit manifested behind Jacen as he and the Jedi stood up in the circle they assembled over Allana's clothes. The ghost of the deformed Yuuzhan Vong looked around to those living in the throne room and silently realized what had happened; the Queen Mother had sacrificed herself to finally bring the ultimate end to Darth Plagueis.

Jacen was the only one to turn around from the group and look at his friend's soul with a mixed look of happiness for seeing Onimi and slight bitterness to the sacrifice that had just occurred. Onimi matched the look, not saying anything to ruin the Jedi's moment of silence for the Queen Mother's sacrifice.

The moment was finished as soon as a dozen Yuuzhan Vong appeared at the open doorway to the throne room. Each of the Jedi turned and brandished their lightsabers to meet the aliens in combat.

The Vong, however, stopped in their tracks and looked back at their would-be opponents in shock. "What have you done to Lord Plagueis?" the lead alien asked.

"He's dead," Jaden said, not lowering his lightsaber.

The aliens gasped and looked back in shock. "How could this be?" the lead alien inquired.

"We robbed him of his immortality," Jaden elaborated, and parted from the circle to show the Vong Allana's clothes on the floor. "And then the Queen Mother killed him, sacrificing her own life for the endeavor."

"But this is... impossible," the lead Vong said in shock.

"If it's impossible," Jacen said, "where's your Supreme Overlord then?"

The room was silent for a moment, the two groups staring each other down. Then nearly all of the aliens, except for their impromptu leader, took out their vibroblades from their holsters and began slitting themselves in fatal areas. They collapsed to the ground, bleeding and dead, leaving their unofficial leader alone with the Jedi.

The leader, not noticing the mass suicide behind him, took out his commlink and keyed it to a mass frequency. "All Yuuzhan Vong forces, this is Phaa Anor," he said. "Our Supreme Overlord, our Lord Darth Plagueis, has lost his immortality and is now dead. I will surrender to the Jedi and their allies. All others will be free to do what you will." He then turned off the frequency and replaced it in his commlink. "I now formally surrender."

Jacen then took the opportunity to use his Vongsense to determine what effect Phaa Anor's call had made. He soon felt it, as innumerable Yuuzhan Vong throughout the galaxy who heard the call began killing themselves at once in any way they decided. What few who decided not to commit suicide unveiled themselves from their ooglith masquers wherever they were and immediately surrendered to the forces they had infiltrated.

"Okay, so that just leaves the rest of this war to sort out," Jacen said as soon as the feeling of Yuuzhan Vong dying passed him. "Who was the second-in-command to the Hapes Consortium?"

"That would be myself," Phaa Anor said.

The room was silent again as the Jedi stared at him. "You're kidding," Peb Liko said.

"I'm afraid not," Phaa Anor said. "Lord Plagueis obviously didn't expect anyone to replace him, so he had no Hapan lieutenants who can take his place on the throne. I was his second-in-command as his top spy in managing the secret operations of my people throughout the galaxy."

"But here's the obvious problem," Jaden said. "You don't have any real pull in the Consortium now that Plagueis is dead."

"Indeed," Phaa Anor confirmed.

"Then I guess we just have to tell whoever's running the Hapan fleet that Plagueis is dead," Jacen said before looking back at Phaa Anor. "Do you have her command frequency?"

The Yuuzhan Vong nodded and walked over to hand Jacen his commlink. "Her name is General Heqan Booja, by the way," Phaa Anor said just as he gave the commlink to the human.

Jacen keyed Booja's frequency and handed it over to Jaden; it was obvious that the general wouldn't take an alternate version of Jacen Solo seriously, given how ridiculous it sounded. "General Booja?" Jaden inquired.

"Who is this?"

"This is Grand Master Jaden Korr of the Jedi Order," he said. "Darth Plagueis is dead, along with your Queen Mother. Surrender now."

"You lie," Booja growled.

"You want proof?" Jaden asked. He then closed his eyes and sent out a burst of telepathic communication, imparting the idea to Booja that, indeed, Allana and Plagueis were both no more. "That good enough?" Jaden inquired when he was done.

"It will," Booja said before killing the frequency.

The entire group in the throne room then looked up to one of its viewports and saw a portion of the battle there continue for a little while. Soon, though, the trading of fire between the amassed fleets had ceased; no doubt Booja informed whoever was running the Imperial fleet, along with the fleets of the enemy, that the Consortium was surrendering.

The war was now over, everyone in the throne room knew; all that is left at this point are the talks that will resolve everything else.

.

One week later, all the major leaders of the governments involved in the now-ended Third Galactic Civil War - Phaa Anor, Vitor Reige, Mirax Horn, Wedge Antilles, Boba Fett, Soontir Fel (who had been temporarily pardoned for his murder of Shawnkyr Nuruodo for the sake of these talks), Turr Phennir, and Corellian Prime Minister Reily Saxan (nephew to Aidel Saxan, the Five Worlds Prime Minister who died at the beginning of the Second Civil War) - had all gathered in a cleared area somewhere in Hapes's forests. They all took their seats around the durasteel table set there, with their aides and dignitaries bearing personal witness to the event standing by. A few media representatives were attending to document the historic moment.

Also there were the Jedi, who let Jaden be the last to take his seat at the meeting.

"Now," Jaden said without preamble, "I think that the first thing we must establish here is who should lead the Hapes Consortium now that both Queen Mother Djo Solo and Darth Plagueis are dead."

"Without agreement among any of the remaining Duchas as who should lead to replace the bloodline," Reige agreed, "the Consortium may very well fall into chaos again. It's a real shame no two of them can agree on who should lead; I honestly can't believe that we have to pick for them. Quite frankly, it's amazing each of the Duchas managed to keep their individual systems from falling into chaos like they did the first time Tenel Ka Djo died."

"Perhaps they simply don't want to fall back into chaos again, knowing how much it's not worth it," Saxan offered.

"A bit simplistic, but with the Hapans, that may very well be the case," Boba Fett said. He leveled his helmeted gaze at Jaden. "Who do you recommend we elect for the Hapans, Master Korr?"

"If you would all please take out your datapads, as you will have a list of Duchas you can select from, with their list of credentials and their unofficial popularity within their systems," Jaden said. "And by unofficial, of course, I mean what their people truly think of them."

Each of the leaders took out their datapads and saw who they had to select from. Half an hour of selecting later, they all came to the agreement that Ducha Requud would be a suitable candidate to start a new bloodline in the Consortium's leadership.

"And now onto the issue of the extradimensional Yuuzhan Vong here," Jaden said as he and the rest of the leaders looked at Phaa Anor and his cadre of aliens who opted not to kill themselves.

"I will help to work bring my people back from everywhere they still remain in this galaxy and return to our home reality," Phaa Anor explained. "We will never return, and we will destroy any and all records of ever having the ability to travel to other realities."

At Jaden's nod, the meeting moved onto other important matters about the war and how to resolve it.

Two and a half hours later, the meeting had concluded, the Third Galactic Civil War was all but said and done, and the leaders took their leave, with General Fel finally being placed in stuncuffs for murdering Admiral Nuruodo.

After leaving the table, Jaden walked over to where Team Jacen had stood. "Thank you for your help," Jaden said. "I don't think we could've robbed Plagueis of his immortality without you."

"You're welcome," Jacen nodded. "Good luck on reestablishing the Jedi Order by the way."

Jaden nodded back. "May the Force be with you."

"And with you, Master Korr."

With that, they parted ways, with Jaden taking the rest of his Jedi with him.

Ten minutes later, Team Jacen's ship fell into Hapes's orbit to watch as the ships of the leaders who participated in the event leaped into hyperspace to leave the system.

"You think we should tell Waru we proved him wrong?" Onimi asked Jacen in the shuttle's cockpit, shimmering behind him.

"I think he already knows," Jacen said in the pilot seat.

"Do you think Cilghal will leave us alone for a while back home?" Nom Anor asked in the copilot seat.

"Hopefully," Jacen said with a wan smile. "But I won't count on it."

And just like that, they departed from this reality to get back home.

.

Allana simply reveled in the afterlife surrounded by her late family, forever encumbered in pure bliss; there was Great-Uncle Luke, cousin Ben, Aunt Jaina, Grandpa Han, Grandma Leia, her pet nexu Anji, and finally, Allana's mother, Tenel Ka, was there to complete the victory she had over Darth Plagueis.

But amidst all her loved ones was the spirit of her father, Jacen Solo, now redeemed in the afterlife for all his crimes.

With all her family altogether now, enjoying the unlimited time they had for the rest of eternity, Allana knew that, after all the pain and suffering she went through, that it had all been worth it.

The Force is balanced, and Allana could rest now.


End file.
